Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Overdue for an update

So, a lot has happened since I last posted. I worked, slept, slept, worked, slept, slept, worked, took some pictures at a wedding, slept, slept, slept, worked, slept, slept, slept, and got my ultrasound. And, since it is hard to update my blog when I am sleeping, I haven't really managed to do it. But, I figured I might try and do a teensy update, since an ultrasound is a pretty big event. Big enough to take some time out from sleeping to share.

Anyhow, enough babbling. Here is a barely discernible photograph of Baby Auggie:

auggiewakeman1

If you're having trouble seeing a baby's face in that mess, you're just not trying hard enough. Close your eyes, count to three, and look again:

auggiewakeman1edited

See? Now you should be able to CLEARLY identify the outline of Auggie's face, his gorgeous blue eyes, and her luscious red lips. Isn't Auggie a beautiful, poorly-photoshopped, gender-to-be-announced-in-due-time baby?

Auggie completely disappointed all of my paranoid maternal fears at the ultrasound. My baby has all the right body parts. (I counted two legs and one arm, but Jeremy assures me that there was a second arm that I just missed seeing. I thought it was a little unfair that Jeremy had the front row seat and could see the whole procedure, whereas I had to lie patiently while the tech did all the measurements, barely able to see the corner of the screen, while Jeremy got to see Auggie's perfectly four-chambered heart, perfectly straight spine, perfectly enormous genius' brain. She let me see the screen for a little while at the end, but I'm geeky enough to have wanted a clear view of all the boring, medical measurements, too.) My placenta is anterior, which is a big word that means "not a big deal because it's not previa" and also means that it wasn't my fault that I couldn't feel my baby's kicks until week 20; Auggie was hiding behind an enormous, life-giving, foetomaternal organ.

It was also exciting for me to discover that, in spite of the fact that 90% of the women in my pregnancy groups (in real-life and online) look much more pregnant than I do at 21 weeks, Auggie is actually measuring 2 days bigger than my calculated EDD. Grow, baby, grow! Apparently, Auggie is already one pound. I can't help but keep imagining that there is a human being being the size of a bag of coffee inside of me.

So, after a long day of work, ultrasound, and dinner with the soon-to-be second-time grandparents, we dragged ourselves home and remembered that we had promised to take pictures of the outside of my belly to go with the pictures of inside my belly. So, if you'll ignore the "please, is it bedtime yet?" look on my face, here are some pictures of pregnant me at 21 weeks:

Front shot, so you can see how I look to myself in the mirror everyday when I ask myself, do I look anything other than just chubby to the rest of the world?

21 week belly front

Side shot, where somehow, through the magic of telling me to turn another quarter inch to the right enough times, Jeremy managed to find an angle where I actually look like I might have a bit of a baby belly, and not just a diet that includes too many pizzas.

21 week belly side