Excited Ainsley

The last several days Ainsley has been going nuts! Not only can I feel her movements more but there are a lot more of them. My iPhone pregnancy tracker informed me that this is because she is developing her "white fat", which is different from her previous brown fat. While the brown fat was there to help regulate her body temperature, the white fat is for energy. It's the same fat that we have when we're born and spend the rest of our lives fighting. Since she has this new energy source, she moves around a lot more. I feel kicks, rolls, stretches and I'm pretty sure a few elbows. It's so fun! I feel like I'm getting to know our little girl more from her movements. Jeff can feel her more too. He gets at least a few good thumps every time he feels for them. Ainsley is also starting to stretch out my rib cage. I've gained 5-6" around my ribs since the beginning. Bye-bye size 32 :-)

We started our labor prep classes last week. I wasn't scared at all, more encouraged. We learned a lot about the process of labor itself as well as the different stages. Some of the focus was for the dads about how to help mom out during labor. The most interesting part for me was how dealing with the pain is so mental. My body can handle it, it's just the matter of my brain coping with it.

We finally decided on cloth diapers. They've been my obsession for a few weeks now. There are just so many different kinds and different suppliers. I finally decided to go with predominantly prefolds and covers with a handful of pockets and a handful of Flips. I've registered for them, just haven't bought any yet. I may though, as it would definitely fill my shop-a-holic need.

We spent last week's vacation getting the house more put together. We switched the office and baby room and got the baby furniture arranged. It's nice to have it mostly put together and be able to go and sit in her room and get excited about her.

Twelve weeks to go!

Belly Photo (for your viewing pleasure)!

This picture is from tonight. I'm 24 weeks 5 days. I am always suprised at how big my tummy is getting when I see the picture. A store clerk commented that I looked like I was about ready to go; I responded that I was only 5 1/2 months. I wasn't offended, just shocked that the gal had obviously seen so few preggoes at 9 months that she thought I was even close to as big as I would get.

I'm still feeling pretty good. I am definitely having more pregnant days, tired and cranky, more cranky than tired. One of my friends called it "The Rage", which is about right. Everything is irritating and makes me upset or angry. I am trying to still be civil during these times, go lay down by myself for a little bit or just keep my mouth shut. Hopefully I've not offended anyone too badly. I get quite cranky in regards to food: not getting it when I want it, not having enough or the kind I like.

I went to the Cozy Baby Boutique today. It's a very small cloth diaper storefront. They had mostly pocket diapers, but also some contours and some fitted diapers as well as covers. Seeing them in person, I'm pretty much sold on the idea of cloth. I was really excited about them actually, particularly the one-size diapers that snap into smaller sizes for younger babies. I think that deep down, I know I'm going to go cloth, but just afraid to commit just yet. I will at some point though :-)

23 weeks 3 days--ultrasound

We had another ultrasound this morning. In the previous one, Ainsley had had a "spot" on her heart that the doctor wanted us to check again. It sounded like it was really common and nothing to worry about, unless they saw other things too, which they didn't. Everything checked out today and Ainsley looks great and healthy. The "focus", as the ultrasound tech called it, was completely gone today! So it looks like we have a healthy little girl on our hands (well, in my tummy). They double-checked the sex as well, and despite what so many people have found it necessary to tell us about thinking one's baby is a girl and it turning out to be a boy, we are still having a girl.

I've been feeling Ainsley move a lot now! Kicking, punching, tumbling and tickling my insides. I love it! Jeff has felt her more now as well. Saturday morning we laid in bed feeling her kick and laughing because it really does feel funny. I can tell she's getting bigger and stronger and moving up in my tummy.

We took advantage of a big Babies R Us sale and are now the proud owners of gorgeous baby girl bedding, a crib (yet to arrive), a changing table (already assembled) and a car seat. The closer we get, the more excited we are! Only about 16 more weeks til we get to meet our sweet little girl!

Playing catch-up

I fear I've been negligent in keeping up with our blog. Ah, well, I'll try and do better, especially after October and we have more interesting baby things to tell.

We found out about 3 weeks ago we're having a GIRL!!! Jeff knew she was a girl, but I was really expecting a boy, so I was very surprised. I am so excited to be having a girl! We already had her name picked out, but went through the Social Security top 1000 names, as well as a book with 17,500+ girls' names, just to be sure we had the right one picked. And we did. Her name will be Ainsley Bea. We heard Ainsley on a TV show and both thought it was a really cute, yet respectable name. Bea was my grandmother's name. Her full name was Beatrice, but she always hated it and went by Bea, thus it will be just the short version and only a middle name.

I've been feeling Ainsley kick and move for a while now. I vividly remember sitting in the car at the intersection of Avondale and Novelty Hill when I felt her for the first time and knew it just had to be her. It felt like a little brush on the inside of my tummy, super sweet! I'd been feeling some kicks before that, but wasn't sure if it was Ainsley, gas bubbles or my imagination. Since then I've felt her a lot more. Some times she just tumbles and tumbles, sometimes she thumps and sometimes she tickles me. I love feeling her! It really is so cool! Jeff got to feel her kick on Father's Day. We were sitting in church and she was doing some thumping and Jeff finally had his hand in the right spot at the right time. He'd been trying for a while and got lucky.

I'm still feeling really good. I've had some round ligament pain and some heartburn, but nothing unbearable. I'm showing very obviously now and have had several strangers ask when I'm due. Even though getting bigger and heavier is the hardest part for me, I really do just love how I look right now, so cute, just like a little mama-to-be. I'm really weepy, more so than normal. I cry at songs on the radio, movies and sometimes just thinking about the day when we'll bring Ainsley home for the first time.

We are starting to work on pulling things together for Ainsley's arrival. We've registered for labor and birth classes and a day-long class about baby care. We're slowly acquiring things we'll need, mostly from garage sales. We started our registry at Babies'R'Us and have most of it taken care of. We finally settled on crib and changing table. My favorite find so far was from this Saturday. I love garage sales, especially now that I'm shopping for baby things! There was a lady selling tons and tons of baby girl clothes at a sale this Saturday. She is a shopaholic and bought most of her girl's clothes at nice shops like Gymboree and Janie and Jack. I got a huge bag of super cute, high-end baby clothes for $20! I don't consider myself a beacon of fashion necessarily, but I do like to dress well and have fun with colors and patterns. All the same for Ainsley! I didn't realize how much fun I'm going to have dressing a little girl until this weekend. And now I'm super excited about that too!

First Belly Picture!

This is my first official belly picture. I'm 15 weeks here. I was so excited when everyone told me on Mother's Day that I was actually looking pregnant! A week later I'm starting to see it more; certain tops exacerbate it (I try to wear those :-) I find it funny that most of my life I've had to search high and low to find shirts that are not too long. Now that my tummy is getting bigger all those tops that fit just right over a flat tummy are starting to creep up. I really enjoy seeing all the changes my body is going through. It's actually really fun!Things are going well still. We had an OB appt on Friday and everything is great! Baby is slowly moving up and his/her heartrate was 160, perfectly healthy. There was some debate over whether I had actually gained 12 pounds in the 4 weeks since my last appointment (I've been tracking it at home and I hadn't gained anything of the sort, more like 4-6). Apparently the previous doctor's office measurement was really low, lower than my pre-pregnancy weight, but I managed to convince them of this and didn't receive any lectures. We had to re-schedule our next appointment due to Jeff having a work conflict and now we get to find out boy or girl 4 days earlier which is only 3 WEEKS from today! You can bet we're excited!!!

I'm starting to get back to some of my regular exercising, at a lower intensity of course. It's great to be back in spin class and breaking a bit of a sweat. I've been doing a little light jogging as well; gotta keep those legs and lungs as much as I can. We went hiking Saturday with some friends at Wallace Falls. I am definitely not the same woman I was pre-pregnancy! I can still keep up, more or less, but the extra weight and lower lung capcity were quite apparent as I hauled myself up the mountain. Honestly, it was kind of hard to find myself bringing up the rear rather than leading the charge as I did last summer. But just the fact that I'm pregnant and still hiking has got to count for something, right?

11 Week Ultrasound

This is the last ultrasound until week 20, which is the big one!

You can see Baby's little hands in this one.

A little baby face. How cute!

10 Week Ultrasound

Starting to look more like a baby and less like a gummy bear.

This one was my favorite so far. We had it out on the coffe table and everytime I walked by I was like, "Oh my goodness, it's really a baby!)