Still a girl

We just got back from a midwife appointment and another peek at the baby.

We had an ultrasound because, at our first ultrasound, the placenta was just a hair too close to the cervix, so they wanted to double check that it grew out of the way. It did. Everything looks great.

In the meantime we got to see the baby again and learn all kinds of interesting stats. Lets see how much I can remember.

• One of the first things the ultrasound woman said was "still a girl." She actually showed us the white lines that are her little private parts.
• Based on the measurements, they estimate she weighs 2 pounds, 6 ounces. That's bigger than the baby book/Web site say for 27 weeks (they say roughly 2 pounds), but the woman said that's healthy and normal.
• We saw her feet and her hands. We have a print-out of the feet, which I will post soon. I think that was my favorite part of the scan. I want to kiss those little toes!
  
• We saw her leg bones and arm bones. The woman measured her femur at about 2 inches, which seems pretty big to us. No wonder her kicks are so strong!
• She was moving a lot all afternoon and she didn't stop during the ultrasound, so I could watch her move and feel it at the same time. It was interesting to realize that all she has to do is shift an arm or push her leg out a little and it feels to me like she's kicking a soccer ball. I didn't realize how big she is in there and how much space she takes up. I think I was imagining her floating around and swimming from side to side, but actually she's so big she's everywhere all at once.
• Her heart rate was normal, around 136 beats per minute, and we watched her heart beat for a while.
• We saw her face straight-on, which I think was a lot more interesting than the profile image they printed for us. You still had to use your imagination to guess what she'll actually look like, but it was amazing.

My stats were all good, too. I had to drink that orange-flavored sugar water Monday and have blood drawn to test for diabetes. I passed the test.

My iron levels are a little low -- which was true before I was pregnant, too -- so the nurse and the midwife both gave me suggestions of foods to eat with high iron, such as raisins, prunes, red meat, leafy green vegetables, molasses, etc.

We took this advice very seriously and headed straight to McDonald's for cheeseburgers on the way home. There's at least a little red meat in there, right?

Speaking of bad eating habits, you may have noticed that Jim has not gained any baby weight whatsoever. We figured out the other night that he exercises now about 14 hours a week, between karate and running. Meanwhile I've scaled back my exercise routine and I gain pregnancy weight just by eating normally so I haven't been eating outrageous quantities of food.
What does this mean? It means he's the one who's starving and wants to go to Kimball's for ice cream on a Wednesday night, and I'm the one who eats all this extra food just because it's there. So of course he's not gaining baby weight. I'm gaining "karate weight."

26 weeks!

Tinkerbell is now 1.5 to 2 pounds. Her hearing is getting better and her eyes are finally opening. How cute!!

I've been wondering lately what she's thinking when she's kicking around in my belly (if anything). Sometimes the movements are so furious and fluttery that I wonder if she's playing or if she's frustrated. Is she uncomfortable and telling me to shift positions? Is she just enjoying the fact that she has arms and legs?

I like Anna's idea of giving the belly a little jiggle to play with her. I tried that last night when I woke up for the second time to her kicking. I though jiggling her around a little might soothe her back to sleep. I fell back asleep before she did, so I don't know if it worked.

The exciting news this week is that we got our first crib. I dragged Jim to the Babies R Us in Nashua so he could test strollers. I figured we could place our order for the crib I've been scoping out to get the waiting started -- the Babies R Us in Peabody told me it would take at least 2 to 3 weeks. Yet through some stroke of luck the Nashua store had it in stock. We tossed it in the truck and brought it home and I set it up the next day.



This has been very satisfying for my nesting instinct. I got to try out my dust ruffle -- it fits! And last night I made this sheet, which also fits. I have fabric for a second sheet and then it's time to do curtains. We still have more than three months to go. I'm afraid I'm going to run out of craft projects!

Week 25 photos

By popular demand, here's my quick attempt at a belly shot this morning.

Again, I swear it's much bigger in real life.

This week we spent a bunch of time cleaning out Jim's studio, packing away things, taking stuff to Goodwill and converting the room into a nursery.

Here's what we've done so far:


That's the new dresser from Ikea that I finished putting together last night.

Setting up the nursery is such a good excuse to play with baby clothes. I've rearranged things three times already, just to paw through everything and play with the snaps and look at the sizes. So cute!!