Wednesday 25 July 2012

20 weeks

our tiny kitten is now half way cooked, ~10.5 ounces, and the length of a banana.  he's still tucked way up in there and barely showing unless i'm sitting down, but he moves all the time -- so much that sometimes i have to ask him to settle down.  colby hasn't been able to feel him moving since the first time, but there will be plenty of opportunity for that down the road.

i feel pretty great, definitely rocking that pregnancy glow.  i've been reading the december 2012 birth club forum on babycenter.com and counting my blessings every day.  the people on there are so much larger than i am, and many are having bladder control problems, trouble getting out of bed, waddling, swelling, etc.  i just look like i just ate an entire pizza and loved it.  i know that tougher times are down the road, but i'm thankful to be half way and having no embarrassing problems like that.  i'm even sleeping really well, still able to lie on my back and stomach with no protest from kitten.

my best friend sent me all of her maternity clothes and some extra from her friend as well, so i have TONS of stuff to wear and it looks like i'll make it through this entire process with only buying one maternity outfit (and a lot of huge new bras.)  if we have a girl, we also will have tons of baby stuff given to us, and this will be the world's cheapest pregnancy ever of all time.

i started a separate photo album for baby belly pics since there were too many i liked to post them all here:  kitten thompson


Saturday 21 July 2012

colby felt our little kitten move last night for the first time!

Wednesday 18 July 2012

19 week pics


19 weeks

this wednesday really snuck up on me! baby is the size of an heirloom tomato, but we don't have those on island or i'd be eating them every day.  i still don't feel large enough to have something that big in my belly, but i can't complain.  i feel great -- people are telling me i'm glowing or at least back to my cheerful self after all those months of "morning sickness." i can and will still sleep 12 hours if you let me, but i can function just fine on 8. 

i'm out of cherries, but i'm still craving them.  i wish i had some fun, weird cravings to report, but so far none of that has happened.  i've been thinking a lot about making smoothies (and pinterest makes the cravings worse), but unfortunately the ingredients are hard to find and expensive so i haven't followed through on that yet.  we haven't had any new papayas or bananas from our yard in a while or i'd be all over those.  i'd really like to make a local banana bread, but i know i'd just eat the whole loaf in 2 days max and i'm trying so hard to not let myself go and end up one of those women complaining about baby weight for the rest of her life.  i want to keep weight gain to a minimum and bounce back quickly so i can prepare my body for the next baby in a few years :)

we haven't discussed names any further for the past few weeks because we're so close to finding out the sex there's no sense in putting in more effort.  i'm pretty settled on jonah emery because it honors our fathers (both are named john) and my grandpa who passed away last year and who was the most awesome grandpa ever of all time!  mom and i went through my family genealogy looking for some hidden treasures, but we had no luck, as it seems my ancestors weren't very creative and just used the same names generation after generation.  i'm at the point where i feel like no matter what we name our child, as long as we spell it correctly, he or she will have a major advantage over all the maddisyns and aiydens of the world right out of the gate. 

Monday 16 July 2012

new midwife

i had to go to a new midwife on the island because of my insurance situation, and it turns out she's amazing and i like her way more than the previous one i was seeing.  she spent a lot of time with us, asked tons of questions, answered all of ours, and seemed very caring and knowledgeable in general.  she assured me that i don't have to adhere to all the things i've been reading, like sleeping on my left side even though it's not comfortable.  she said that if i'm still comfortable on my back i should continue to do what works for me and if it's bad for the baby my body will let me know. 

she also confirmed that based on the size of the baby, my due date is accurate.  she said i probably won't really show until 6 months, which surprisingly gives me mixed feelings.  i definitely don't want to be huge so early like a lot of the women i see on babycenter, but i am looking forward to looking clearly pregnant and not just fat/bloated.

i told her of my concerns as far as spinal development etc, because i didn't find out i was pregnant and start taking prenatal vitamins until i was 8 weeks along.  she said the size is right and i'm feeling movement and those are good signs that everything is going along normally.  i did go ahead and get the quad screen today, so we'll know more in 10 days.  given my issues with endometriosis and the fact that i haven't gotten pregnant until now has led us to conclude that we're having a miracle superbaby. 

Sunday 15 July 2012

18 week photos


i have decided that i need an underwater camera ASAP so that i can do my weekly baby bump updates under water. i have to find some way to take advantage of being pregnant in the caribbean!

Wednesday 11 July 2012

18 weeks

baby is as big as a bell pepper (~5.5 inches) and weighs almost 7 ounces.  this is a vegetable with which we are much more familiar.  i don't feel like i'm showing enough to have a bell pepper in my belly, but we'll be doing another ultrasound in a few weeks and i have a feeling my due date could change.  of course i'm hoping it shows i'm farther along so we don't get too close to the holidays, but colby is certain we're having a christmas baby.

i felt baby moving around this morning and it was super weird.  he doesn't like it when i lie on my back, but i want to do that as long as i still can.

Sunday 8 July 2012

whoa!

i just set my laptop on my belly while i was editing some blogger settings and i just felt the weirdest thing.  i haven't been able to distinguish baby moving from the normal rumblings of my temperamental digestive tract, but that was definitely a sensation i've never felt.  SO WEIRD.

17 weeks

this week our island baby apparently weighs as much as a turnip, but we aren't much into turnips so that reference is lost on us.  i'm barely showing, and i only weigh about 140 lbs right now so i'm feeling pretty good about that!  i like to think that despite not kickboxing for the past 8 months i've maintained enough of my core muscle to keep things in as long as possible.  i went to florida to visit my mom and grandma last week and when i came back colby said i was showing significantly more, but i think i just ate too many cookies.  when i sit down i can see a bump, but when i'm standing i just look bloated.  once i start actually showing i'll take some pictures :)

we'll be finding out in the next couple weeks if we're having a boy or girl and it's not even a question if we want to know.  i don't intend to drown our child in either pink or blue, but you better believe there are going to be some super cute gender-specific clothes, especially for christmas, and i'd like to be able to plan as far ahead as possible.  it's going to be a challenge having a shower and getting gifts here since some major retailers such as target do not ship to the VI even though we have a US post office.  we might just have to ask for gift cards which takes all the fun out of it.

having a baby here on st. john is going to be a unique experience, but we're prepared to do what it takes.  i don't currently have a doctor, i've just been seeing a nurse midwife and getting tests done on st. thomas at the hospital.  there is not only no ob/gyn on this island, there is also no hospital, so when the time comes we have to figure out how to get to st. thomas.  one suggestion was to plan an induction, but i have always been against induction.  i'm a pretty firm believer that babies come when they are ready, and i've heard too many horror stories about long drawn out labor that ends in emergency c-section.  if i go into labor naturally, i have limited options for getting to st. thomas.  there is a car barge that runs every 30 minutes until 7pm, a regular passenger ferry that runs every hour until 11pm, or an ambulance boat.  none of those sounds fun or ideal.  there's a woman working at a local deli who is having her baby here a couple months ahead of me, and i plan to talk to her some more and find out what she intends to do and of course find out how it all went after the baby comes.  if she tells me a horror story, i'll be flying to somewhere else to have this kid!

colby has been super supportive and takes such good care of me.  i don't even understand how it's possible to love someone more and more every day, or how i got so lucky to be having a child with the sweetest, most loving boyfriend in the world, but it's real and it's amazing and i can't imagine it any other way.

our favorite names right now are henry, jonah, mary, and catherine.
i'm endlessly thirsty and obsessed with snacking on montmorency cherries. 
i recently acquired a body pillow a few days ago and drastically improved my sleep.
i measured my chest and the internet says my bra size is now 30G. i'm scared!