Baby J

I'd like to announce the impending arrival of Baby J! He's due to arrive on September 11th. That's right - it's definitely a "he". I was so worried that this kid wouldn't cooperate with the ultrasound tech but we got a good view between the legs. You can see his cute bum, the legs coming out and all the right parts in the middle. :-) I drank a big glass of orange juice and ate some sugary Easter candy before the ultrasound just to make sure the kid was awake and moving in there.

So here's the story. Cory and I knew that we wanted to wait for at least a year after we got married before we even thought about kids. Before we knew it, 1 1/2 years had gone by and we realized that we weren't getting any younger. And wouldn't you know it - at that exact time, Cory lost his job. So our world stood still for several months while we decided which direction life would be taking us next. Once Cory got a job offer, we started trying to conceive. It only took two months. I was shocked. Everything in life seems like such a hurdle - nothing comes easy. I really thought we'd have to try to conceive for at least a year, then see multiple fertility specialists, go through three rounds of in-vitro and maybe, just maybe, we might get a baby after that. But no...only two months (and I really shouldn't count the first month since I was living in Idaho and Cory was already in Utah). Apparently this little one was in a hurry to get here. He's probably ready to knock us over the head for waiting so long!

But here's the thing...I've never (read: not even once) looked at another person's baby and said, "I want one of those" (which is probably why I'm 33 years old and having my first child). I have, however, looked at another person's four-year-old and said, "I want one of those." I wondered if I should feel guilty about that. Does that mean I'll be a bad mom? BTW - I still can't believe some crazy doctor is going to let us out of the hospital with an infant. *Ahem* But I've talked to several of my friends and they said they just had to suck it up and make it through the infant years and they are thoroughly enjoying their kids now. And others have told me that they enjoyed the infant stages much more than they thought they would. Let's hope I fall into that category.

As far as I'm concerned, this pregnancy has been a breeze. I haven't been sick at all, no significant body changes yet, no odor sensitivities, no major food aversions or cravings, etc. I was a little tired for the first eight weeks but I've got my energy back now. Don't get me wrong - I wouldn't want to change anything and have my head over a toilet bowl for the past three months but I will say that the utter lack of any symptoms does occasionally have me worried. I wonder if everything is still okay in there (I can't very well ask the kid and I can't feel him moving yet to confirm). I wonder if there's been a missed miscarriage. I suspect that this is only the beginning of my worrying for Baby J.

Many people have told me that they woke up one morning and couldn't fit into their regular clothes. I still don't understand how you can just "pop" like that overnight but I took them at their word and figured I'd better start shopping for some maternity clothes in the event this happened to me. I must confess that I cried all the way home after going shopping that first day. I could only bring myself to buy one pair of capris. I have read on these message boards about women who are excited to go shopping for, and start wearing, their maternity clothes. What?!?! Who in their right mind gets excited about putting clothes on that are going to make them look like a beached whale? I clearly don't get it - and will definitely have to work on getting comfortable with gaining weight. Not that I had a perfect body before but I was okay with it. I worked with a personal trainer when I first found out that I was pregnant. I wanted to understand what exercises were okay and what I should stay away from. I must confess that I'm sucking a lot more wind than I used to in my Zumba class and the stair-stepper machine really kicks my butt these days, but I'm trying really hard. Hopefully I can keep it up. I've gained 7 lbs so far. That's right, 7 lbs in 17 weeks. UGH! I want to smack those women who post that they've only gained 1 lb at 16 weeks. How??? What goes on the thighs must go off the thighs at some point. But I guess if you have to gain weight, it might as well be for a worthy cause.

Neither Cory nor I really cared about the gender of the baby. But we were both secretly hoping for a boy. And I've thought it was a boy from day one (don't ask me why, I haven't had any crazy dreams or anything). I think I have this "motherhood and apple pie" idea of having a boy as the first so he can look after his younger siblings. And of course, I think Cory's already been planning his first hunting expedition with his son. :-) We have no ideas for names. Really...nothing! I have lots of girl names picked out. This should be an interesting process.

And speaking of interesting processes, how on earth do people figure out what to buy for a baby???? Honestly, I feel like the biggest idiot. We have purchased a stroller so far, and that's only because a good friend pointed out a great sale online and after looking at Consumer Reports and reading all the reviews, we decided to go ahead and buy it. But I had to go into Babies 'R Us last week and figure out how to even USE a stroller. It really was "Stroller 101". For example, I have no idea how to snap the car seat into the stroller, how to adjust the straps, how to collapse the stroller, etc. And now we're on to decisions about cribs, pak 'n play ensembles, rocking chairs...and we haven't even reached the point where I can think about how to decorate the nursery. We are so crazy busy, and it's been easy to forget that I'm pregnant, that we have to remind ourselves that we need to get going on all of these decisions. The next 23 weeks are going to fly by!

I'm definitely excited about meeting Baby J but I hope he takes his time getting here. And most of all, we hope that he arrives safe and sound!