boy?girl?

On a walk up South Congress today a large black man, who appeared to be homeless, stopped me to let me know that the baby is a boy. I asked him how he knew and he said he could tell the future. Hmmm? I'm always curious about people who can tell the future- but have to beg for money at a bus stop.

Other sources of prediction, such as dreams and intuition of non strangers point in different directions. My friend April is pretty confident you can rely on dreams- So far all the dreams I've had about the baby star a baby girl. Sheri, Sean's sister is guessing girl as well. My mom and grandma are predicting boy.

I'm not carrying particularly low or high, I haven't lost my curves or acquired extreme acne, all theories of indicators. Neither Sean or I have a confident sense about wether it's a him or a her- and we don't really have a preference- So I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Another Ultrasound picture

Another profile- but this ones nice because you can see his/her little hand. The one on the right is hard to decode- it's the baby's nose as if you where looking up at it. you can just barely make out the nostrils towards the left side of the image.

Ultrasound

We had our ultrasound on Oct. 15. It was reassuring to see that Tiny is healthy as can be and very entertaining to see him/her squirming around in there. We didn't want to know the gender and we actually had the discipline to keep our eyes closed when the technician explored those areas. Sean said he was very tempted to peak- I think I was just so excited to see the baby I forgot about my curiosity about the gender. Here are some pictures.

Profiles

Feet.

3d face.

(These 3d images are always a little creepy. But I promise if you stare at it for days on end it gets really cute.)

Good Morning.

The last 2 days in a row I have been awaken not by the alarm, or the sun, or even the need to pee- but by my baby moving and kicking. It makes me smile and think about the fact that I will probably be awaken by that same little person every morning for many years to come.

Little baby Fifi

The sweetest baby related thing that happened in the last week was Cohen (our babies 3 yr old cousin) expressed her feelings about our baby. During a dinner she called my attention from across the table to say "Cybil, I like your baby". It was sweet and honest and a delight to hear. She did go on to comment that she was pretty sure it's a girl and that her name is "Fifi".

Sleeping like a baby?

Right now I feel completely sympathetic with tiny babies that wake up in the middle of the night crying. I woke up around 3 am so starving that all I could do was wake Sean up and express, on the verge of tears, that I was "soooo hungry". He was brilliant- suggested I eat something. Duh, you'd think I could come up with that on my own. I just felt horrible and helpless. I imagined myself as a tiny baby unable to solve my own problems. Turns out it was nothing a banana couldn't fix, temporarily anyway, an hour later I was back down to the fridge looking for milk and cereal.

Aside from a myriad of food issues, this has been a fun week or two of pre-motherhood. Our last prenatal appointment went really well. Everyone is healthy and thriving. Baby is measuring just the right size and I am feeling better and better all the time. We listen to the babies heart again- it was loud and fast and sounded great. So great actually that it made me giggle. Every time June would find the heart it would "turn my tickle box upside down" (as Grandpa Larry would say). It was joyful and fun. A little distracting for June, and after the third try at determining the heart rate the conclusion was that it sounded healthy and counting out a heart rate was not going to fly for a mommy-to-be who was that giggly.
Other excitement- I am definitely looking pregnant. I even ventured into the world of maternity clothes. I wanted to resist but after days of going to my closet and feeling defeated in finding something that fit comfortably, I went for it. It was good, I'm thankful to live in a time when fashion has crossed over to maternity wear and the moo moo is a thing of the past. We'll take a picture this weekend so everyone can see the baby bump.

A place for a baby

I've been nursery planning. Focusing on the fun parts like quilt fabric and cute themes, letting daddy-to-be focus on the fact there's a little remodel that needs to occur before I can buy a crib and hang a mobile. Here are some baby things I like:

The crib of choice. It's smaller than a standard crib, which accomodates our tiny nursery and I love the casters.

I like these wall decorations. Embroidery hoops with stretched fabric.

Super cute bird mobile. I down loaded the pattern for the birds and want to start testing my skills at bird making soon.

And of course there will be a very special hand made quilt from Grandma Gustafson. Here are my color ideas and some possible fabric choices.