First Flutters

 

This past weekend was eventful in my pregnancy journey- we found out our little geek is a BOY as Michael revealed in the previous blog entry and I felt the baby for the first time during Saturday night! From what I read, during the 18th week of pregnancy, the little geek is now extremely mobile, at least compared to me lol (actually I am still pretty quick and active, no complains yet although I do feel I am slowing down a little…). So the baby is busy inside there yawning, hiccuping, rolling, twisting, kicking, sucking and swallowing. Those first ‘flutters’ were very interesting to feel- I was sleeping so I was semi-conscious when I woke up with these weird butterfly feelings in my stomach. I realized what it was and I think I went back to sleep smiling.

Baby's now the size of a sweet potato according to ‘The Bump’ weekly update I get or the size of a red pepper as ‘babycenter.com’ claims. Either way that’s kind of small in my opinion to really justify the extra 10 pounds I put on already. I don’t think I overdo it with food, I hope it’s just our junior growing and developing in there. Both of us are pretty tall, so I assume this baby will inherit some of our genes.

Now that we know it’s a boy, I am curious to see what a mix of Feli-Michael will look like:)

 

 

It’s a Boy!

Of course, now that we know what it is, we need to figure out a name.  We had a girl’s name picked out, but no ideas on what we would call a little boy.  Any ideas?

Boy or Girl

So Feli and I are at the doctors right now to see if we can find out whether we're having a boy or a girl. Anyone want to wager?

NCC Moms Group

Last night I attended the first meeting of NCC Moms small group for this fall semester. I was the only expecting mom with her first, there were two more pregnant ladies but each one had a three year old at home. It was a group of about 15 extremely funny and full of life moms that made me feel very welcome and at ease. I got a very good vibe off them and I will continue to be part of the group for the remaining of the semester and hopefully for longer. From the feeling I’ve got, they all started while being pregnant and now, 4-5 years later they are still good friends, still helping each other be better moms, still pursuing God and inspiring each other into raising God-fearing children. I just felt I was in the right place. I am looking forward to getting to know them, learn more of what’s ahead of me in the very near future and equipping myself better for the new role of motherhood.

The group meets every other Wednesday evening at Ebenezers from 7.30 to 9.30 pm. When I headed to the meeting last night, I was thinking “two hours is a long time, I will probably get bored and leave early…” It was 9.50 pm when the group finally dissolved (those mommies were really glad to see each other in this small group context) and I started heading home.

We are studying Mission of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson. My copy is on its way but from the discussion last night of the introduction and first chapter, it sounds like a great book that would help us all become the mothers God calls us to be.

I wrote the above paragraphs earlier today, but reading them now again right before posting this entry, it still blows my mind that these words are about myself. It's still hard to believe that I am entering this new category, new role and new responsibility! I sure need as much help as I can get to prepare myself for that!

 

 

Heart Beat

Michael accompanied me to my 16-weeks appointment this morning and we got to hear our 'little geek's' heart beat for half a minute... or maybe even less. That means we just got another typical in and out visit with the OB/GYN doctor. I was already used to the flavor of the 'drive through' the doctor's office had but Michael was pretty turned off by how fast the whole encounter took place. Until he pointed out as we were leaving the office, I didn't even realize how fast my doctor was speaking. He had to get it all out under the allocated time for us, I guess.

On Saturday morning I had a lovely meeting with a midwife I recently found out was attending our church and she was very helpful about answering some questions I started to have about being pregnant and especially giving birth. I've never thought before of not doing what maybe 90% of the women do- go to a regular OB/GYN doctor, have those quick monthly check ups and then deliver at whatever hospital the doctor was using, getting the epidural and hopefully skipping the C-section procedure.

After reading and informing myself better though, I am more and more inclined to find a birth center and allow these wonderful women who feel called to deliver babies to guide and take care of me during this special time. I realized I could have a personalized, educational experience where nothing is rushed, natural birth process is supported and where I have a caring, competent 'with woman'... my translation 'with ME' (the term midwife is derived from Middle English: mid = "with" and Old English: wif = "woman").

We have a couple of options around DC so Michael and I will check out these places and come to a decision. Until then, everything looks normal and on October 6th we will find out if we have a boy or girl.

Things I’m Looking Forward to ….

So, I haven’t posted an entry yet on the blog about our little geek to be, and that’s because I’m still coming to grips with the idea of being a father.  It’s funny how in one day I can go from joking with people that their kids are my favorite kind (not mine) to suddenly finding out that in 6 months you’re going to be a dad.  Needless to say that for a guy who was seriously contemplating never having having kids, this change can be quite a shock.

But that being said, there are a number of little things that I’m looking forward to doing and showing my child:

• Sitting on the front porch on a cool spring or fall evening and just watching life go by (unless he or she is like me and it’ll be more watching him or her bouncing off the walls)
• The joys of technology (and with it the frustrations)
• Metro
• Cities all over the US and the world
• The importance of learning how to think through a problem to determine an answer

I’m sure there are more things, but these are the ones that just popped into my head.