20 week visit went fine

We had our 4 th prenatal doctor appointment this morning. Everything is going fine. The baby's heartbeat is strong and regular. My weight is good and increasing as it should. The doc approved traveling in July so we feel comfortable making plans for traveling to White Lake this summer. I can't believe how much she moves around when I am sitting down. Since I am 20 weeks, she is already 10 inches long and 10 ounces. It seems that I would have felt her moving before this weekend. We can't wait till Diana can feel her too, but the doc said we have several weeks before that may happen. Drats. Oh well, we will keep trying and hoping. Work is going fine. I have been working on what topics I want to cover during the summer group and the schedule as well. I am also working on making a proposal that supervisors in training be made employees that are eligible for insurance and taxed properly. We shall see what happens!

Things are changing!

Since Friday, I have had more and more thumping and squirming feelings inside--our baby girl is very active. Today, she is really active. It is so amazing to feel the baby now, it is so weird and wonderful at the same time. This pregnancy thing is really wild and exciting! Our next doctor appointment is Wednesday--we are looking forward to hearing the heartbeat again! And you should see my belly now--I have done well in not gaining too much weight--it is all baby.

Part II: The Trip North to See Family

The day after getting our good baby news, Diana and I headed up north to see mostly her family and to celebrate Passover. With two seders, a birthday party, and a trip to Connecticut--we stayed up late every night. I therefore had to sleep until 11 AM most of the mornings there since I was up so late for my pregnant self. It was great to see so many of Diana's family, especially her cousins. There is always so much to catch-up on with each other. As for my side of the family--I called my father the week before and he didn't return my call. I called again and then he did call me back. However he was unable to commit to whether he could get together with me or not. So Diana came up with a good plan. She suggested we mail a card to both he and Nancy and see if that helped him make plans. Diana was wondering if it is hard for my father to make plans that aren't normally part of his regular schedule. Why it worked we are not sure, as he doesn't seem to be impaired as much cognitively as we were beginning to think. But nevertheless, we drove up and had a chance to visit with him at his home. He and Nancy built this house a few years ago and I had never seen it before. The house was very nice but it appears like no one lives there as it is not only spotless but void of any personal items or touches. The cats they have even match the entire color scheme of the house. It was weird, really. My father was the same--looks happy enough on the outside but is not easy to engage him deeply or emotionally. Neil and Wendy stopped by which saved the visit and that was when I realized how flat the conversation really had been with my father. We had a great visit with them and then went out to dinner together. My father didn't come with us as he and Nancy had dinner planned already. And frankly it seemed Nancy was staying away until we left. And my father was worried about going against Nancy and coming to dinner with us. It was very strange. The dinner was great as we had a chance to catch up with Neil and Wendy and also time to talk about my father and our weird experiences. Now I know that my father, whom I have known for a while was a narcissist, is married to an even bigger narcissist! This seems like there is justice being served already--and am not sad for him to be miserable with her--he deserves to know what he does to others with his self-centeredness. I didn't have time to see others, (my aunt and uncle, cousins, or friends) like I wanted to during this trip. We hope to be able to travel up again in the summer for a week vacation like usual, but it will depend on how I am feeling and doing with the pregnancy.

Part I: The Results are in!!

Well, it has taken me some time to update you all. Diana and I were away most of last week and we needed to tell some people the news before we told the whole world. The genetic test results are in--they are great. I am at such low risk of any birth defects that we are skipping the amino test, and I am thrilled with that. Truly, our appointment could have ended with that news and I was so overjoyed I had what I needed already. But the good news continued. We had a long extensive ultrasound where we got to see the baby move around a lot and see all the vital organs working well already. Amazing--we could see different parts of the brain and heart. It was amazing to see the changes that have taken place and how much bigger the baby is. We could see the teeth and little toe bones in the feet! And the gender of the baby....well, I think that they are cautious in giving their opinion when it is not clearly a boy--so since no penis could be seen at different angles and with jiggling the baby around as well--the opinion was the baby is a baby girl! We are thrilled and surprised since the odds were in favor of a boy. In the moment I heard I was both excited and a little sad and I am fairly sure I would have felt the same way no matter what the gender was. I am happy with a healthy baby and either gender brings fun and amazement. And regardless of the gender, the baby will have it's own personality that defies labels--which is wonderful! It has been fun to share the news with family, friends and co-workers as well. I went out and bought two outfits. One was a pink onies and another white with brown outfit. I was a little silly and put one on the front door so Diana would see it when she first came home and the other in the hallway in front of the baby room. I couldn't resist buying something to mark the occasion and found some good bargains at Ross, a local department store.

I think I must look pregnant to strangers now...

I was wondering if I looked pregnant to people who didn't know I was pregnant--now I know...I stopped at the local food store for what else but ah...food. I asked if the cashier could ring up my water without my having to lift it out of the carriage. This with my appearance seems to have tipped off the bagger that I was pregnant. The bagger take my carriage out to the car and helped me put the bags in the car. How nice! I wasn't expecting the help and don't really need it--except for the 2 1/2 gallon water jugs. How strange. And surprising.

I had BUBBLES!!!

While sitting and trying to pay attention to a co-worker reading intentions this morning-I became quite distracted with a new sensation. I had bubbles in my tummy that lasted 2 seconds maybe. I don't think I have ever felt that before, so I figure it is the first sign of the baby moving that I have been able to discern. Hey to bubbles!! Go baby, go!

I passed--I am now a Supervisor Candidate

I will be able to run groups without my supervisor being present in the room. What fun I will have this summer, with my own summer intensive interns! Of course, I will have work to do with coming up with didactics and working on the next step of writing theory papers. But I feel no rush and can spend my days and nights thinking about the group and our baby! In a week and a half we will know where we stand on the genetic testing and the gender of the baby too!