He Kicked Me!!!

For weeks we've been waiting for our little guy to kick. All of the books say moms-to-be should be able to feel kicking as early as 18 weeks and here I am 23 weeks and I've got nothing! Ross was growing increasingly impatient and would ask me every morning if I've felt anything yet and every time I'd have to say no. We knew he was moving based on the acrobatics he was doing during our 20-week ultrasound but his movements weren't strong enough for me to feel anything. I had been feeling those "flutters" everyone talks about every now and then but not frequently enough to feel 100% confident that it was the baby. I kept thinking, maybe it's indigestion... maybe it's gas... maybe it's that burrito I ate at the airport (probably not the best decision I've made in terms of travel cuisine).

Last Sunday night I flew home from a softball series in the Bay Area and got home about 9:30 p.m. We climbed into bed and watched the news like always and just as we were about the roll over to go to sleep I felt this strong "THUMP, THUMP THUMP" on my left side. I shot up and said "What was that?! I think he's kicking me!!"

Ross couldn't get his hands on my belly fast enough and sure enough, one hard kick. It was so cool! We sat there for probably 10 minutes waiting for another kick and couldn't feel a thing but were so excited to feel his first kicks. We had almost fallen asleep when it happened again- "THUMP, THUMP, THUMP". That resulted in 10 more minutes of me practically holding my breath trying to hold still enough for Ross to feel him again but the baby had stopped for the night.

We laid there with big grins on our faces and talked about what he must be doing in there and what kind of person he'd grow up to be. I think we narrowed it down to three categories: 1) The next David Beckham- soccer superstar, 2) the next Jean Claude Van Damme- martial artist phenom and action film star, or 3) the next Michael Flatley- Irish dance champion, most know for his starring role in Riverdance- (many of you have seen Ross' dead-on impersonation of Mr. Flatley and have laughed your butts off). I think Ross is pulling for the martial artist.

Pregnancy Stats:
There are 118 days until my due date on August 21, 2007.
I am 162 days pregnant.
I am 5.3 months pregnant.

The Ever Expanding Belly

Okay, you've all been asking for a photo of my belly so I'm going to be brave and post a photo taken at 19 weeks and then today (22 weeks). Please excuse my spandex outfit- no this is not what I came home from the maternity store with- it is my workout outfit. My sister says that a person my age should NEVER be in lycra but cut me some slack. It's comfortable, my neighbors only see me in it if they get a sneak peek on garbage day and imagine how big my belly might be by now if I wasn't doing these morning workouts.

Ross and I had our monthly OB visit this morning and everything was normal. It had actually been five weeks since my last appointment because my doc had been on vacation and I was dreading getting weighed since I knew this ever expanding belly was not just full of air and was actually going to weight something. The question was how much?!

When I got to the digital scale, it flashed 350 lbs which is either the maximum weight it can register or it's there to make us prego ladies feel better about ourselves. I have to confess it took me a few weigh-ins before I realized this was not the weight of her last patient (I began to think she was running a gastric bypass clinic on the side or something).

So there I was at the scale and I asked Ross to hold my purse because God knows that would be what, a half a pound?! I then took off my coat and shoes and looked at the nurse and asked "What else can I take off?" She said "Honey, you're pregnant. You can get naked if you want." Well considering the scale was in the main hallway I decided to keep the rest of my clothes on and stepped onto the scale.... 164!!

When the doctor came into the room I asked her how much weight I'd gained total and she said eight pounds in 22 weeks. Not bad I thought. Then I asked how much I had gained from my last appointment and she gave me a coy smile and said "most of it." And I said "What does 'most of it' mean?" Turns out "most of it" means six pounds in five weeks. Woo-wee that sounds like a lot. Maybe the baby is already five or six pounds and they have miscalculated my due date by about three months... okay, maybe not.

When the doctor stepped out for a moment I grabbed the paper measuring tape left on the counter and told Ross "Lets measure my belly. As long as it fits in this thing I think I'm doing okay." Well I unraveled the tape measured and began to put it around my belly and it went only 2/3 of the way around. We both burst out laughing. It turns out the measuring tape is there to measure the length of the uterus, not the girth of mommy bellies. After two loops around we determined my belly is 37 inches! Okay, that makes me officially bigger than my husband with four months to go! The human body is certainly an amazing thing...

Pregnancy Stats:
There are 126 days until my due date on August 21, 2007.
I am 154 days pregnant.
I am 5 months pregnant.

David Copperfield, Fashion Designer

Okay, I finally did it... I bought some maternity clothes today. I'm days within the five month mark and there is pretty much nothing in my closet that I can button or zip up. I told Ross this morning that I thought it was time to bite the bullet and get some new clothes and he said "Ya, you think?" I had to laugh. What, he didn't think I was puling off wearing my jeans unbuttoned with my white belly peeking out? Okay, I didn't really think I was pulling that look off either but more than anything it was just increasingly uncomfortable.

He took me to the maternity store at the outlet mall in town because I hate spending money on clothes so cheaper is better. Since we've become home owners I get fired up to buy things like base board trim, door knobs, even fertilizer, not clothes.

I tried on about 20 things and ended up walking away with 5 or 6 items including a pair of black slacks for work and jeans for play. I must say, MATERNITY PANTS ARE AMAZING!!! They fit me now and if I pull on the waist band it expands on forever. It was like magic pants or something. Do regular women know about these?!! I mean you can go from a size 8 to 14 in the same pair of pants!! And they were actually cute and looked like normal pants, not like fabric hanging from a large rubber band. It's mind boggling.

The best part of the trip was probably the prop the store had left in each dressing room. At first I wasn't sure what this strange, white, circular, puffy, strappy thing was but then it hit me... IT'S A FAKE BELLY!!! How funny!! Women can actually strap this bump around their waists to see how their maternity clothes are going to look months from now. I tried to get Ross to try it on but he would have nothing to do with it. What a party pooper.

Pregnancy Stats:
There are 130 days until my due date on August 21, 2007.
I am 150 days pregnant.
I am 4.9 months pregnant.

IT’S A BOY!!!!

We had a routine ultrasound on March 26 and learned the wonderful news that the baby is healthy and that it is a BOY!!!! I guess than means I can throw all of the wives tales out the window (although the Chinese calendar predicted a boy but hey, as Ross keeps reminding me, those things have a 50-50 chance of being right anyway).

Ross was so excited to learn he was having a son. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so happy. We even took a snap shot of the dad-to-be with the baby’s profile on the monitor… their first picture.:) Ross made sure to count all 20 fingers and toes and says he can’t wait to start reading him the IFSTA handbook- which for those of you not in the fire circle, it’s the equivalent of the firefighter’s bible.



I officially reached the halfway point of the pregnancy earlier this week and suddenly realized that I only have 140 days to go. That doesn’t seem like much time at all before our son arrives. Nine months seemed like a lifetime away but now with 4.5 months to go I’m starting to realize that he’ll be here before we know it- ready or not.

Over the last couple of weeks the baby has gone through some sort of growth spurt because my belly is huge and I can’t fit into any of my pants. I’ve been left wearing all of my work pants unbuttoned with longer shirts to disguise my predicament but I’m dangerously close to breaking down and buying some maternity pants. For some reason I thought I’d be one of those women who could wear regular clothes right up until the end… WRONG!! Wait, do those women even exist? Maybe I’ve been in denial or maybe it was just wishful thinking, I don’t know. What I do know is that it has become increasingly more challenging to tie my shoes and it makes me wonder how am I ever going to do this come August?!! I see a lot of slip-on sandals in my future this summer.

My folks were up for nine days at the end of March and we were able to sneak them into the end of the ultrasound appointment to see the baby. Needless to say, they are thrilled!!

I took my mom to a couple of baby stores at the outlet mall near our home “just to look” and we came home with a couple of bags of baby clothing. The first couple of stores we went in to I was a little disappointed at the lack of cute clothes for boys. Then we walked into the last store and they had an entire section dedicated to firefighter themed clothing. For those of you that know my mom it goes without saying that she pretty much cleaned out the joint and I think she bought one of every outfit possible. She even bought two of her favorites in different sizes so he wouldn’t grow out of them too quickly.

You’re now up-to-date on Baby Tucci. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Pregnancy Stats:
There are 136 days until my due date on August 21, 2007.
I am 144 days pregnant.
I am 4.7 months pregnant.

Week 16

Baby Tucci is 16 weeks today and all the baby literature is telling me that I should certainly be looking pregnant now. Good thing! I haven't reached that obvious "Look, she's pregnant" stage but I'm certainly in that "Wow, she should do more sit-ups" stage.

I've been reading A LOT of books and web sites about pregnancy and babies because as you all know, I HATE SURPRISES!! This experience is certainly teaching me to deal with the unknown and being comfortable not being in control but I don't have to like it.

My newest symptoms are somewhat funny. 1) Whenever I've been sitting for a long period of time and stand up, I REALLY have to go to the bathroom! This especially rears its ugly head when I've been keep stats at a two hour softball game. Not fun but sometimes funny (especially when half my emergencies are false alarms). 2) When I sleep, I've developed this really rapid respiration, almost like panting, and sometimes it's accompanied by little snores. Okay, super embarrassing right?! I think you can compare it to one of those pug dogs who snores away while snoozing... attractive!

Ross and I went to our first baby store just to check things out yesterday. We still haven't bought a single thing yet. We checked out Land of Nod and Pottery Barn for Kids and man is baby furniture expensive! I joke that we should just put the baby in a dresser drawer instead of dropping $1000 on a fancy crib. I'm pretty sure the baby's not going to care!

Aside from that, not too much to report since my first entry. I'm heading out of town with the UW softball team this week for Tempe and will get to see my dear friend Jody Roginson. Can't wait to laugh all weekend with you Jody!!

Pregnancy Stats
There are 167 days until my due date on August 21, 2007.
I am 113 days pregnant.
I am 3.7 months pregnant.

Week 15

I thought I could use this blog to update family and friends on this journey to motherhood. I am 15w 2d pregnant and we are due with Baby Tucci on August 21, 2007. We can't wait to meet her. Yes, I said "her" but don't get too excited. This is merely mother's intuition (which I read is 71% accurate) but we will find out officially in 4 weeks. I'm not sure if I feel this way by intuition alone or if I've let all those wives tales influence my thinking.

I was very sick weeks 5-12 (sign of a girl), have craved fruit (sign of a girl) and have had the acne of a 13 year old (sign of a girl). My question is why do all the bad things make you more likely to have a girl?! I think men may have helped develop this folklore!!

We went in for a check up on Monday and I've gained four pounds (155). This is great news since I started out with a pre-pregnancy weight of 156 and got down to 151 by the end of the first trimester. Doc was not pleased but I did the best I could under the circumstances.

We also got the hear the baby's heart beat and it was pumping at a quick 156 bpm (another sign of a girl). It kind of sounds like the dishwasher running, lot of wooshing sounds. The baby has nestled down in my lower right side so I'm thinking she might be a bit shy like I was when I was younger.

I've been feeling GREAT this week- the best I've felt since I found out I was pregnant on Dec. 12. I still have the occasional aversion to certain foods (mostly meat) but the nausea has almost disappeared. I've moved into a new phase where all I want to do is sleep!! I've fallen asleep on the couch every night around 8 p.m. and will sleep until about 7 a.m. I must be trying to stock up a reserve for when the little one gets here!

My folks are planning a visit later this month and I can't wait to see them. It will be their first trip to Washington since our wedding in June of 2004 and it is a huge milestone in dad's recovery to get on an airplane (way to go dad!). We are so looking forward to spending time with them, showing them our home and taking them to meet our doctor (who I love!). They can't wait for their first grandbaby and I know she (or he) will love them too.

Pregnancy Stats:
There are 172 days until my due date on August 21, 2007.
I am 108 days pregnant.
I am 3.5 months pregnant.