Halfway

I'm about to wrap up week 20 of the pregnancy. This of course means that I'm more than halfway there! It's a very exciting milestone, especially because of my runner mentality.
Running long-distance races has forced me to become adept at mind games. When I run a half marathon, for example, I don't approach it as 13.1 miles on the road. I break the distance up and think, "it's only a little more than four 5Ks" ... or, "it's only three miles more than the training run I did last weekend." And I do the same thing as I'm on the course.
The most exciting part is getting to the halfway point in the race and knowing that the distance I have left to go from then on will be less that the distance I've covered. "It's all down hill from here"... or so I tell myself.
I'm sure I've still got some challenges ahead of me in the pregnancy. I'm still in the honeymoon-ish second trimester, where I'm glad to have that first one behind me but know the third one looms. I can only guess what kind of complaints I may be posting up here when I'm another 10 lbs heavier and it's 90 degrees out...
But right now I'm excited about hitting this halfway mark. And judging by the laps I can feel something running in my belly today, I'd say the cantaloupe is pretty happy, too.

Oh, and here's a recent pic of me (and baby)...

Meet baby... sort of :)

Here are some pictures I took of the hard copy pics we got from the ultrasound. Sorry they're a bit blurry. Our little one is always on the move it seems :)
Oh, and the ultrasound technician assured us that even in the pictures where it may appear otherwise, the baby does not have any holes in its head.

Wow

The ultrasound today was intense. And soooo amazing! The technician gave us about 20 printouts from the pics she took and I cannot stop looking at them!
The baby actually looks like a baby in some of them... others, it's a little more alien-like :) I'll try to post some of the pics online later, but we don't have electronic versions right now.
Here's the account of our ultrasound visit.
Brian picked me up at work and proceeded to unload about his crappy morning. Work was not going well. He ranted until we arrived at the doctors office and then agreed not to let it spoil our exciting appointment. And once we got in the office neither of us could stop smiling.
After finally getting called in by the ultrasound technician, we went back to the room and I hiked my pants down and my shirt up ;) The tech put a healthy amount of warm gel on my belly and started looking around with the ultrasound thingy (I think that's the technical term).
Almost immediately she started pointing out the head, the stomach and other parts of the baby. I looked up at the screen and saw only black, gray and white blobs. She started getting pictures of the face and even pointed the eyes, nose and mouth out to me several times. Brian pointed it all out, too. Still I couldn't see what we were looking at. I felt very much like Rachel in the Friends episode when she couldn't see the baby in the ultrasound and kept pretending, "Oh, now I see it" ... but of course, still didn't.
I was really starting to get upset when the technician finally switched over to some 4-D imaging. Now that the baby's face finally took shape, I could see what she was talking about. It was incredible.
We checked out the face from a bunch of angles, the legs, feet, arms and hands. She counted 10 fingers and 10 toes! And she checked out all of the major organs.
Her final assessment was that everything looks good. Just like it's supposed to at this point.
Brian was hoping (and hinted several times during the appointment) that we'd "accidentally" find out the sex. But the tech mostly stayed away from the mid-section. So we still have a surprise.
And I may be biased, but I think he/she is the most beautiful cantaloupe-sized, alien-like baby I've ever seen!

Photo shoot coming

Friday is our ultrasound appointment! Even though we're not finding out the sex of the baby, we're both really excited to be getting a first look at the baby (er, mango). Brian is also hoping the tech slips up and calls the baby a him or her!
Not too much else new to report in babyland.
I am officially 10 lbs heavier now than I was pre-pregnancy. Thanks for the happy news, gym scale. But even though I joke about my "pudge" these days, I think I'm adjusting to the weight gain OK. (Brian may disagree since he still has to reassure me most days about the way I look... but it's fleeting concern, not something I'm sitting and stewing about.)
I still worry about gaining too much, but so far I'm right on schedule. And feeling the baby move around so much these days is really reminding me what this is all for.

So much love

Brian and I went to Rockford this weekend to visit my family. We got to see three of the four siblings and our niece and two nephews.
We spent much of Saturday night and Sunday sitting around talking and monitoring "the kids" as they played together.
It was great to spend time with the kids and laugh at all their silliness. But I was so sad when we had to leave town on Sunday. I started thinking about how much I love those kids, even though I only get to see them a dozen or so times a year. The love of an aunt is fierce, so I can only imagine how much stronger it will be when I become a mother.
I've had friends try to describe that instant bond they feel when their baby is born. I gather it's hard to put into words. But I'm starting to understand what it will be like. Every time I feel a poke or kick inside my stomach I feel a twinge of it.
I think it's some combination of excitement, happiness, fear, nerves and pride. And, of course, a ridiculous amount of love.

It's a mango

Week 19 is here and the baby is now mango-sized. He or she is now about 6 inches long and weighs about 8.5 ounces.
I was partly grossed-out and amused by the update this week listed on thebump.com... Here's what it said is going on:
"Vernix caseosa, a greasy white substance made of lanugo, oil and dead skin cells (yum) now coats baby's skin, shielding it from the amniotic fluid. (Picture yourself after a nine-month bath, and the need for protection makes sense.)"

Even with its new vernix caseosa, I'm feeling the baby kick and poke me a lot these days. It's really cool. And I think the mango has finally started moving further north in my belly, so it's not sitting on my bladder as much. Definitely an improvement. I've been wondering if anyone in the office has started a daily pool on the number of trips I take to the bathroom each day.

Maternity leave

I feel like Christmas came early today!
I just found out that I've apparently misunderstood the company's maternity leave coverage. It sounds like Gannett will pay my full salary for five weeks after the baby is born and I may even be able to get a few 60% pay weeks after that!
In trying to read and understand the policy online, it looked like I was only covered under the federal family leave policy, which guarantees 12 weeks unpaid. Brian and I had been working out a plan for post-delivery based on that info. But this is great news!
Since I've been with Gannett for four years now, I also qualified for a third week of vacation this year. So by saving up that time to combine with the maternity time, it looks like I won't have to rush back to work. And, we won't go broke :) (Well, no more broke than we'll already be with all the new baby expenses...)
I still need to get all of this information verified and fill out the appropriate paperwork, but YAY for some good news in the midst of all this job uncertainty!