The Baby Bump

Time for a baby update. On September 21, I went in for an ultrasound and found out I'm having a girl! I put the exclamation point in there to highlight my happiness at knowing what I'm going to have, not because of the gender. I honestly didn't care whatsoever. I figure girls are more fun for the first 10 years; then boys are better for the next 10; and who the heck knows once they hit 20. :) I was just happy to hear that The Floppy Alien (now Alienette) inside of me looks healthy. While I'm not as nervous as I was in the beginning, I still get the occasional twinge of worry.

I wish I could put up some pictures of her, but the disk the hospital gave me is a whole program, not just some files. It's pretty cool because I have video as well as stills. In one she's in a sort of on-all-fours-position; then you can see her legs straighten out and her butt slam into my side. It's pretty cool. Another is a front view of her face, and it looks like a perfect skull, which I find pretty awesome.

*****Amanda reminded me about screen capture, so here are some pics!*****

Here she is on her back.

And now she's facing you and her face looks so like a skeleton!

Here, she facing down. I love the glowing spine.

I love these creepy pictures! We don't have a name picked out yet, but we do have a starter list:

Riley

Ashlyn

Kaelyn

Maia

Callie

Feel free to weigh in, or suggest another name if you have one you really like. We are still pretty open at this point. While The Floppy Alienette is still super small, my body is certainly expanding. My waist is doubling daily (okay that may be an exaggeration) and the bubbies have certainly grown (two cup sizes). The pic below shows both areas a bit:

That's my mom on the left. Gorgeous, isn't she? Definitely a pain to grow up with such a hottie for a mommie. :) Here's a side angle for a bit more of the baby bump:

That was a few weeks ago, so the stomach has rounded out quite a bit since then. Despite the annoyance of enlarging body parts, I'm having a pretty good pregnancy. I slept for a few weeks, but after that things really smoothed out. No nausea, no food cravings, no food rejections. I'm one lucky chica as far as all that goes. I figure it's the universe making up for the extreme anxiety of two miscarriages.

My biggest complaints are slightly swollen feet and an extreme lack of clothing options. I have to drive an hour or more in order to have any sort of selection, and then each piece costs an obscene quantity of money. I just can't seem to lay down $75 for a maternity shirt that I may only wear for three months. I'm cheaper than that.

My local Target, Kohl's, Penney's, and Carson's have maternity sections with approximately three shirts, two types of jeans, and your standard black and gray dress pants. And most of them are sized Extra Small, a size I have never seen in my entire life. I'm a chunky girl to begin with, so Large or Extra Large are my friends.

So there you have it; the most recent news and complaints in my pregnancy journey. I haven't started buying anything yet; although I must say that I'm a giant fan of this:

Just to have one bookish part to the post: No, I'm not reading any books about babies or pregnancy. I did my first time around, and it just freaked me out. :)