24 Weeks

Week 23: Little Lambs Eat Ivy

This little lamb seems to be taking a lot of interest in our Ivy...

22 Weeks!

Today is officially the first day of our 6th month of pregnancy! Five down, four more to go... So in honor of the occasion, Felipe took a couple (okay, about 4,000, but who's counting?) pictures. Here are two of them:

21 week update

I will post a bump picture soon, I promise.

I am finally out of the phase where my pregnancy is totally surreal. For the first couple of months after finding out, I was totally immersed in trying to figure out what products were healthiest for Baby, what essentials we would need for our newborn, and driving myself mad trying to decide on vaccination, birth, and breastfeeding plans. At the end of the day, though, I would look at my belly, step on the scale, and think I’d imagined the whole ordeal.

Up until the night before we left for San Diego, I was still able to wear my pre-pregnancy clothes – but as convenience would have it, I suddenly discovered that 60% of the outfits I’d planned to pack were no longer fitting comfortably, and the rest certainly had lost their flattery. Flutters were finally turning to kicks, and the numbers of the scale were starting to increase. While away, Felipe and I started reading new material to my belly, including excerpts from The Perks of Being a Wallflower (my plane ride entertainment), David Sedaris short stories, and various books of poetry, although after a particular poem narrating the sorrowful experience of a young Hispanic woman who fell victim to rape and aborted her pregnancy, we decided it was wise to screen the readings ahead of time.

Of course, it all became most real in the doctor’s office last Wednesday, when Ivory showed us that she not only has grown into a lovely (though severely undercooked) little gal, but also exhibited signs of a personality. I used to have this idea of babies in the womb being mindless blobs of atoms which magically transformed into human beings at birth, so this whole being an expectant parent thing has really thrown me for a loop, especially since I was never someone who wanted to hold other peoples’ babies (with a small handful of exceptions based on my closeness to the parent). For fear that he or she would cry and I’d be instantly outed for my obvious lack of maternal instinct, I chose to steer clear of those situations, hugging walls and ducking under tables to avoid the inevitable awkwardness. I never would have guessed I’d be gushing over ultrasound images and looking for crib bedding, but here we are, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Ivory has been stirring constantly. We went to gospel meeting yesterday afternoon, and she spent the whole time trying to knock my bladder out of me. I noticed it especially while we were singing, which I’m sure she can hear pretty well at this stage. Daddy and Grandma Linda have enjoyed feeling her kicks several times now. It is such a comforting feeling every time she starts to move, just the little reassurance that she’s still in there doing her thing. And ooh, there it just was!

The weather here is lovely today. I'm impatiently waiting for springtime to arrive,  but days like this make it seem more possible that it eventually will. I took a drive to Subway on my lunch break (the first time I've driven anywhere for lunch in several months), and I just had to roll down the window for fresh air

In other news, we're starting our nursery (sort of)! Grandma Wendy and Grandpa Javier gifted us a beautiful Jenny Lind crib and changing table, pictured below, and we will be using coral and turquoise/aqua to decorate. If anyone finds a pretty coral bedding set, please feel free to send me the link; I'm on the lookout.

Introducing Ivory

Well, the cat's out of the bag! Our 20 week ultrasound on Wednesday, March 5th, at 8:15 a.m., revealed that the bladder-kicking thing in my womb is a living, breathing little girl. It was one of the most emotional moments in our lives so far when the ultrasound technician pointed at three distinct white lines between our baby's legs and announced that she most certainly is a she. Over time, we're taught (whether consciously or not) to suppress our reactions to situations in certain ways, but the rush that went through me in that moment was absolutely unanticipated and euphoric. It took several seconds for me to realize that I'd let out a screeching noise, rather loudly, and was starting to cry... and that my dear husband and mother (grandmother-to-be) were sniffling beside me, too. Then there our technician was, a career of 26 years in the field behind her, rubbing tears out of her own eyes and taking a moment to regain composure. She explained how rare it is for parents to hope for a baby girl, saying she'd seen families get up and leave the expectant mother laying helplessly alone in the examination chair at this sort of announcement. She told us that only recently did their office start to allow sex determination prior to 20 weeks (which we opted out of), and how she had tried to take a moral stand against it because of her disbelief that such importance - to the point of it being the deciding factor in whether to keep a child alive - is placed on gender. Apparently, it had warmed her heart to see people so happy that they would be having a daughter. If I knew that woman's name, I would write a raving review and send it to the person who decides what she earns for her work, but all three of us missed it in our excitement.

Since we found out we were expecting last November, we've been playing the name game nonstop. One name would sound cute for a minute, maybe even a day, but then we'd forget all about it and keep searching; except for Ivory, which both of us loved instantly. The way it sounded with our (well, his -- I have yet to legally change mine) last name made it even better, as did its special meaning to me, because both of my maternal great-grandmothers shared the name. Still, we knew it wasn't very traditional, and one person who asked us what names we were considering was very critical and even cruel about the suggestion. It's funny how the positivity of a hundred people can be dampened by one naysayer, but once we saw our beautiful baby moving and squirming in real time, we decided it was time to get real. It started with us talking to her on Thursday morning, and once we used the name, we knew it had to be right. Plus, her namesake single handedly birthed fourteen children, unmedicated - and lived for over 9 decades to tell the tale, just loving and giving selflessly to her innumerable offspring; if she wasn't a strong female role model, I'm not sure who is.

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of our ultrasound pictures. The first is Ivory's profile, and the second is a 3D image of her with her hand covering one eye.