Friday, February 29, 2008

Judo-Chop!

So I don't want to sound weird about this, but....I WAS KICKED!!!

"Hey, put your hand right here." Mom says this a lot, trying to get me to feel Hadley kicking...and every single time, I go over and press my hand on her and wait and wait, and she cops out on me!
Poihaps tonight was different.

"Come on, girl, show me what you got," I said, with my hand on Mom's stomach. All of a sudden, wham! A little tiny foot comes and karate kicks me in the fingers.

It took me by surprise--I was expecting the little moth flutterings the books describe, but that girl is strong! It felt more like when you have a grasshopper in your cupped hands, and you can feel it thumping around trying to get out.

A few seconds later she did it again. It's always hard to believe she's in there--Mom's not really showing, not having the "milkshake-and-pickle" cravings or anything stereotypical...but feeling Hadley in there, kickboxing my fingers from her warm little nest is so indescribable; she really is in there and she really is kicking butt already.

(PS: Dad got her another onesie; "Party Pooper")

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Now for the Wait

So to alleviate your obvious and fervent need for this blog, I write this update with little to share. Nothing major has happened since we found out Peanut was a Hadley; Mom has successfully passed into her 20th week and has a doctor's appointment tomorrow (cross your fingers for an ultrasound!).

Hadley hasn't kicked much, and a baby magazine we have says it may be because girls have more delicate kicks. She does 'roll around' and Mom can feel that more frequently.

One thing Hadley does have is clothes. Tons of it! She'll be the best-dressed newborn this side of the Mississippi. Her cutest items: a little Pooh Bear jacket with bear ears on the hood, and an adorable onesie that says "Hug me." No shortage of that coming her way!

Being officially halfway through the pregnancy, it still seems like it'll be forever till she gets here, even though you might argue. How fast (or slow) did your pregnancy progress? Did you ever feel like your baby was never going to come (or couldn't wait)?
Mom's labor with me was a modest length; Kevin came in two hours! I wonder how Hadley will make her entrance...

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Surrender the Gender!

Other titles I considered using tonight: "Mission:Cognoscible" (which means 'knowable', which also doesn't really make sense), and the ultrasound tech was not impressed with my saying to Peanut, "Show Us Your Crotch!", so that probably wouldn't have worked either.

It also occurred to me, after reading a magazine article, that a peanut might not actually be a legume, which would be totally embarrassing, a permanent symbol of my literary brashness!
But Merriam-Webster saves me with this: "A low-branching widely cultivated annual herb (Arachis hypogaea) of the legume family."
Phew!

I know I've been kind of slacking on the blog (sorry, Summer!), but I have an excuse. For a while there, between OB appointments and no new developments, it was the only boring period. I considered writing an update called "The Seventeenth-Inning Stretch" (She was in her 17th week; catchy, right?) but procrastinating won out.

Anyway. We are now moving into Week 19, which What to Expect When You're Expecting tells me is the fifth month. Excitement ahoy: we get to see the baby's sex on the ultrasound! Since my dad was driving, we were late (for the record, if Erin "Leadfoot" Heinl was driving, we probably would be dead right now, because I can neither drive nor pay attention to how my actions will affect others on the road).

When we got there, everything was already going: Mom had goo on her tummy, the room was dark and, oh!--two chairs!--for us to sit and patiently watch the screen. After listening to the heartbeat and watching Peanut squirm around, the tech blurts, "Are you ready?"

I don't even have time to get excited. We all say yes. With a few seconds of twisting the handset around, she says:
"It's a girl!"

"It's a Hadley!" My mom says, twisting around and beaming at us. Hadley Joy for the win! Kevin celebrates by remarking how special he is now, being the only dude; Dad celebrates by looking mistily at the screen (which he will probably later deny); and Mom and I celebrate by buying Hadley a huge girl-themed onesie wardrobe.

And if you were wondering, yes, we still sometimes call her Peanut.

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