21 Weeks

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a very nice dinner for Thanksgiving with Mr. Brian and Mrs. Jayne - turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffed mirlitons, homemade bread, corn grits, and cranberries - it was delicious! Patrick and I got up at 4am to brine the turkey - we are serious about our turkey - but it was worth it. It came out very flavorful and moist. The stuffed mirlitons took me about 3 hours to make - it might be awhile before I make those again - and I had to trade Patrick 2 foot rubs to get 1 foot rub from him. I think he took advantage of a poor pregnant woman - I was willing to take whatever deal he offerred if he rubbed my feet. So now whenever he wants to cash in, I apparently have to rub his feet twice. And you may know how much I love feet.

Patrick and his dad have been hard at work this week. They replaced my broken garbage disposal, ran a cable line for internet to the room upstairs that will become our office, a phone line to the TV for updates on our satellite system, they've replaced a lot of the siding on our house that needed to be changed, and they built a railing for the stairs in the front of the house. For those of you that have visited, our front steps are on a slope and are a little precarious. There were concerns that a large pregnant woman who can't see her feet, prone to being a klutz when she can see her feet, might fall down the stairs without a railing. It came out really nice. See the pictures below. Nellie has been hard at work this week too, of course.

Pregnancy wise, things are going well. My belly is getting bigger - my belly button is starting to disappear! I looked down the other night and it looked smaller. I had Patrick look at it because I thought something was wrong. He laughed and said that it was stretching out and and I was starting to see the back of my belly button as it came foward - Yikes!
The baby should be about 10.5 inches long and should weigh about 3/4 of a pound. His eyebrows and eyelids should be fully developed now. I'm starting to feel him move around a little bit. The doctor said my placenta is positioned in a way that might take me a little longer to feel a lot of movement. But I'm still feeling great!


Replacing the siding


Nellie is helping too!



Working on the railing



Finished railing!

20 Weeks

We're halfway there!! Isn't that hard to believe?!

We enjoyed seeing everyone's comments on our ultrasound post. We're very excited about having a little boy! Knowing what it is definitely makes us think about things differently. But I should have known it was a Harrell boy - I've actually enjoyed eating spaghetti and meatsauce a whole lot more recently. Patrick couldn't be happier. Now he's trying very hard to get me to eat pickles. That will NEVER happen!

The baby is now about 10 inches long from head to toe. Up until now, the measurements have reflected the head to butt, but since the legs can stretch away from the body and are no longer curled up, the measurements now measure head to toe.

The baby is swallowing amniotic fluid, which is good for its digestive system. The hair on the scalp is starting to sprout and his arms and legs are now in the right proportion. His brain is beginning to designate specialized areas for its sensory development - smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch.

I've felt really good this week - first week I've felt completely normal in awhile. I've actually gotten some work done, so its been good to accomplish a few things this week.

Patrick's parents arrive today for the Thanksgiving week. Mr. Brian will be helping Patrick on some projects around the house while they are here. Patrick has a long list of things he wants to get done on the house before the baby comes, and I'm not exactly a good helper these days. So, who ya gonna call? Brian Harrell, of course! When it comes to home improvement, there's no one like him!

Babies "R" Us is a scary place ....

My coworkers told me get used to it. Its the Bed Bath & Beyond for the newly married. Its the Lowe's of home improvement. Its our final conversion to yuppies.

Its not that they have everything (which they do). Its the fact that they have every option for everything. And every option takes D batteries. I need to invest in Duracell.

Baby monitor, you ask? Digital or Analog? Dual monitor or single? One, two, four, or ten channels? Did you also want it to show live video????????? Wow!!!

And strollers have apparently morphed into transformers over the past two decades. Its an infant stroller, its a toddler stroller, its an infant carrier, its a cradle and a car seat all in one. It now has cup holders and pockets for everything. Some even play music. I'm honestly surprised they're not remote controlled by now. Just Wait!

This is a whole new world to me. Its not that I'm complaining, I'm just a little overwhelmed.

-Dad in Training

It's a.....

BOY!!!!

We had our ultrasound today and the baby curled into a ball with his feet near his head so that we could get a clear shot of his area, leaving us without a doubt as to what he was. I don't think we needed the ultrasound tech to tell us what it was - it was pretty obvious. So he certainly showed us his stuff in all his glory!

We're pretty sure we have the name picked out, but we're going to keep it a secret until he's born! (Something has to be surprise!)

I've posted three pictures below. In the first one, you can see a good outline of its head. In the next one, you can see his body curled and his feet above his head. Then the tech took a picture between his legs, and there it is! (You can click on the picture for a larger view)

Otherwise, they said everything else looked really good. We could see the heart beating and the tech pointed out other organs as she took measurements of everything. He looks to be pretty healthy!

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18 Weeks

At 18 weeks, the baby is approximatelyy 5.5 inches long - about the length of a bell pepper - and probably weighs about 7 oz. The baby is busy flexing its arms and legs, which I'm not sure if I'm feeling yet. There are certain feelings when I wonder if its the baby moving. But this should increase over the coming weeks. A protective coating, called myelin, is starting to form around the nerves. The gender characteristics have formed - if its a girl, the uterus and fallopian tubes are now in place and if its a boy, his genitals are now visible. We have our ultrasound on Tuesday, Nov 6th, so hopefully the doctor will see a healthy baby - boy or girl!
I've had a cold all week, so I haven't felt that great. I've been trying to treat it with non-medicinal remedies to try to alleviate some of the symptoms. Minna made me a concoction of honey, lemon and ginger. She said it really soothes the throat and calms a cough. I was getting ready to down a spoonful, desperate to feel some relief, when she yelled, "No, don't eat it straight!" and she told me to mix it with hot water, to make a tea-like drink. Right. Its actually really good and very soothing. I've had about 10 cups of it in the last couple of days. Patrick has taken to sleeping in the other room so the only person I bother by coughing all night is myself. Nellie is even sleeping with him.
We have a CD of baby sounds to play to help Nellie get used to the sounds of a baby. I put it on the other day, but it was stressing out both Nellie and Patrick, so I turned it off. I'll have to play it while Patrick isn't around. Nellie sat there and stared at the stereo, her ears very alert. Hopefully she won't be very alarmed when we have a real baby making those noises. I'm posting some pictures of our recent activities - some from the NASCAR race and one of Patrick and I in our Halloween costumes. I painted a fishbowl on the belly of my shirt and Patrick went as a "fisherman", but instead of lures, he had baby stuff hanging from his fishing vest. Not sure if anyone else thought it was funny, but we were hightly amused by ourselves.