It's a...

Last week, Thursday (yes, I have been lagging once again with my updates...), we had our fourth doctor's appointment and got some more snap shots of our little angel. Once again everything was just going the way it was supposed to: my blood pressure was awesome, I had gained about 4 lbs since the month before and I was feeling healthy and chipper as always.
We both squinted at the screen while little body parts flew by, kicking, twirling, jumping and generally being quiet restless! (Thanks auntie Zoe for giving us the tip of drinking orange juice before our photo shoot to make sure the little one wouldn't be curled up sleeping with it's back to the camera! Boy, did that trick work!! Wheeeee sugar rush!).
After more biology lessons than I can remember, countless hours of anatomy study back in massage school and two semesters as foreign exchange student with an A+ in photography, i was convinced I had this game in the bag....

"Look honey!", I squealed excitedly "it's the head!"
"Actually, that's the stomach.....and see here.....the heart pumping...?' ", the doctor interrupted.
Oh, well, so what, I needed a warm up picture first. Some more black and white things zoomed by until it rested still for a few second one the cutest foot I'd ever seen.
"Awww....is that a little foot?"
"Nope....elbow...''.


Fine! Whatever! Maybe I'm not all that witty; but I do remember how to change a diaper..... (more on that next year....please don't place bets, I don't condone gambling!).


And since I seemed to be on a roll; I was proven wrong one more time........


The baby flipped and spun and jumped, until presenting us with this bottom up view:



"It's a girl!", we heard the voice. We both grinned at each other. We are going to have ourselves a little Princess!!! We could hardly contain ourselves, we were so ecstatic! Awwww.... a little girl!



That's her attempting to hold her hands.





And apparently she's coming after her Mommy, look at those legs

That's a full length leg shot from the hips down, ankles crossed (to the left).

Her face...I think

There are many more pictures, but unfortunately I can't even guess what they're supposed to be...

Like this one:

Feel free to leave comments and suggestions:-)

Later that day I felt a first "movement". It was the faintest of flutters, like a little muscle spasm...then again, I'm not sure if I imagined it having see her move so vigorously all morning or if it was indeed her and the orange juice wearing off. A few days later, we went down to LA to welcome my parents to the start of their one month vacation. One of those mornings, laying in bed, again I could have sworn I felt the slightest brush from a foot, hand or elbow (if I had learned anything the days before it should be not to guess her body parts!) against my tummy. Hmmmm....

But today, half an hour before I started writing this, I felt something and this time I'm 100% sure it was her! It felt like a little kick or poke, still not strong enough to be visible from the outside, but there was no question about what I just felt...a few times in a row and by the time I had gotten up to find a phone to call Inyo, it was over already.

Today, at exactly 21wks 1day, she started to bend it like Beckham.

Also according to babycenter.com she's now the length of a carrot.


I just learned that starting with the 20th week of pregnancy, the way baby is measured is different. The first half of pregnancy it's measured from head to rump, hence the cute comparisons of blueberries, bell peppers, tomatoes and the like; then the second half of pregnancy, baby is more stretched out and can now be measured from head to toe; which results in less round and longer vegetable choices: such as bananas and carrots.

I can hardly believe that this inside journey is already half-way over!! It seems that it just started; before I know it, it will be January; and there are so many things to do still......I really want to get better with updating these posts; otherwise we'll go from a carrot picture to first day of kindergarten...

Pink or Blue

"Do you know what you're having?"; this is the second question that gets thrown at me (right after having received confirmation that I am in deed pregnant and didn't just fall into the cookie jar face first) by anyone that dares to actually strike up the conversation about my possible weight gain.
I'm no medical doctor but I'm pretty confident in saying that "Yes, I do know what I'm having... it's a baby and it will either be a boy or a girl". I like to see myself as a pretty open person, but I am having the hardest of times understanding why this boy vs. girl question is of such incredible importance to everyone. It seems to be right up there in the category of "Where did we come from?" and "Where are we going?". Maybe if we all didn't worry so much about "irrelevant" questions like these (especially if they don't personally concern us) and just start enjoying ourselves; we'd have a better time waiting for the answers?

I'm being told the reason for finding out if it's a boy or a girl, is so you can be "prepared". I can only assume that means being prepared to making the "blue or pink decision" at Dunn-Edwards. I don't care much for painting walls these days, so that's off the list. I was really really convinced that I do not want to know the baby's sex until the day where I can see for myself. I strongly believed it was no body's business but ours and I wasn't going to find out just to satisfy the curiosity of a bunch of strangers. I figured; the people that deserve to know will be the ones that are close to me and they will be around when the day comes that information is no longer a secret; if they won't be around anymore, well, they were never truly close enough to me to have earned the right to know such delicate secrets.

....yes i truly was convinced that I do not want to know.......that I was.....

But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. First we have some catching up to do. I think all these gimmicks and nerd tools readily available these days, are great; but I so far haven't felt inclined to join the trends: MySpace, Facebook, Blogging, Tweeting.....where does it end?! Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I do wonder at times what ever happened to letter writing and calling someone on the phone....fine, I get it: I'll keep quiet and get back to my knitting and doing laundry down by the river.
Then I realized: maybe a little blogging about our newest project, couldn't hurt anyone. It's definitely easier to keep friends and family informed all at once; especially if they live on different continents. So here I go, my very first blog.


It all started with this:

Only three weeks later, it's looking like an actual baby:

Not to my surprise, Inyo pointed at a certain part of the picture saying proudly: "Look, Honey, it's a boy!" For some very different reason I'm convinced it's a boy as well; I don't want to make this post any longer, but it has to do with a dream i had about 2 months ago in which I met the baby; but before we get more into the boy vs. girl stuff again....here some more pictures.

This is my very first "Outside" picture which I had to rush to get before I got into postponing mood again. According to babycenter.com our little angel was the size of a bell pepper...

...which made me look like this...

For some strange reason doctor's have this crazy formula they use (which I wouldn't be surprised to learn was fabricated in some underground lab in Russia) to tell you just how many weeks you are along. Thanks to my early developed math skills, I'm able to understand them, but it doesn't easily convert, into what I've come to refer to as "real time", in a very linear fashion. I knew the day would come when I had to get rid of my beloved piercing because it would no longer be able to keep up with my stretching skin, without getting infected at the least. Since I've become a master at postponing things since moving to this country (gotta blame someone and that's a whole different blog), I've decided to remove my jewel on the exact 4months (in real time) anniversary of my pregnancy. So here I was on August 12th 2009:

Also, our little pepper has in only one week grown to a full sized Heirloom Tomato...

Now that we're all caught up; back to my girl vs. boy debate. Long story even longer: after days of debating and coming up with pros and cons to knowing and not knowing, my husband gave the deciding argument. He said something to the tune of: "I know you, if we decide NOT to find out, you will be stressing over the fact that the doctor or some nurse might spill the secret, for the next 5 months! And stress is not what you need right now". And all of a sudden it was clear to me. He is right. Yeah, yeah I'll say it again: He is right! I would like to be surprised; but growing up with a dad that worked for CSI Zurich, and watching a lot of movies, I can't help but constantly trying to put together puzzle pieces and looks and listen for clues; even if it's at the doctor's office. So if one day the unsuspecting nurse that takes my blood pressure should say such an innocent thing like: "Let's see how the little girl's doing", I might read into it, lose it and strangle her with the stethoscope (OK, part of that is probably the hormones talking, but it wouldn't be a pretty scene for sure).

Taking into consideration the well being of everyone involved, we've come to the conclusion of "going with the flow" and finding out if it's in deed a boy or a girl before that big day sometime next January.