Pregnant for the Holidays!

-



Christmas has come at last, and with it came holiday parties, feasting, and three relatives now who have rubbed my small but growing bump (I don't mind if it's relatives--it's strangers touching my belly where I draw the line). Being pregnant for the holidays is fun because not everyone gets to experience that, and there are many fun activities that can be incorporated for you and baby.

I bought myself a holiday-themed maternity shirt and went out to take baby's "first" picture with Santa at our local Ethel M's Chocolate Factory. I went shopping at the Downtown Summerlin outdoor mall (scoping out baby items in the midst of holiday shopping) and mailed baby-themed Christmas cards to our relatives ("Have yourself a merry LITTLE Christmas" they proclaimed, with a photo of Hubby stroking my belly next to me). There were also plenty of baby gifts to get me ready for baby's first Christmas on the outside next year.

Seeing the adorable newborn and months old baby cousins at Hubby's aunt's house made me want to meet my own baby even more. But even though I have to be patient for at least five more months, Baby gave me its own Christmas present--little flutters the past couple of weeks that I now know have to be movement inside me! It started out infrequently, and I tried to convince myself it wasn't just me being hopeful to feel Baby. After all, I've never been pregnant before. It could all just be normal pregnancy stretching or gas. But now that it's happened enough to become recognizable (and I was able to consult with Hubby's cousins who just had their babies), I can recognize when my baby moves!

It's still faint, but the best way I can describe it is like a tiny tickling from the inside--not enough to make me laugh, but almost like an itch you want to scratch but can't. Sometimes it feels like bubbles. I've heard others describe it as a popcorn feeling. But it truly is a little fluttering: quick, light, and delightful as it reminds me that Baby is still in there and doing okay.

My next reassurance came from a quick doctor's appointment the day after Christmas where I got hear Baby's heartbeat again (a sturdy 140 beats per minute). Now I just have to wait three more weeks for the anatomy scan ultrasound!

In the meantime, I can play with one of my favorite Christmas presents: a backdrop to be used for future newborn photoshoots!




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Plans and Letting Go

-
Image
So, as mentioned in my last post , we have started Baby on a bedtime routine. Sort of. Baby started getting sleepy between 7pm and 9pm and then sleeping his longest sleep (about four hours) for quite a few days in a row. All the articles recommend using this time to get Baby used to the same pattern, to help him wind down, help him distinguish day from night, and get him drowsy so he can eventually learn to fall asleep on his own. Not to mention that as a librarian I'd been wanting to read more books to him (a big part of the routine), but was discovering how hard it was to find the time between feeding and naps. Now we had a perfect solution to set in motion. But here's the thing about plans: you make them and God laughs . So we've had to become a little flexible with our "plan." For example, Baby started a cranky cry around 6:30 instead of close to 7pm. So we had to decide, do we try to feed him his last little bit to get him to drift off, or do we try to
Read more

Hashtag Mom Life

-
Image
With June just past, not only did we have Kiddo 1's summer birthday, but we had the 5th anniversary of the day I became a mom (not counting pregnancy, which I do like to count, but this makes it easier to set something official). Wow, five whole years of being a mom. I've gone beyond the four-year "best years of your life" high school learning period. I'm into continuing adult education here! So what have I learned in five years? I'd hardly consider myself an expert after only five years, but I do feel like I've been a mom for a lot longer (seeing as how I've wanted to be a mom since approximately age 4 myself). Here are some things that I have found essential in being a mom of young children (and being a mom in general), that I can impart to others on the same path as me: 1. Patience and empathy are essential. Before I had kids, I never set out to be a certain "type" of parent--crunchy, helicopter, authoritarian, etc. I kind of expected to j
Read more

Week of Firsts

-
Image
The week before my last week of maternity leave has actually been a week of exciting firsts! And many of them all took place on the same day! Some first experiences will help us prepare for going back to work. Others were fun surprises or planned events to help us all get the most out of our remaining leave time at home with our little one. August 15 First afternoon away from Mom and Dad: Though neither Hubby nor I want to leave our son at all, it's important to have our sitters (a.k.a. Baby's many wonderful grandparents) get a chance to practice caring for him in advance. They can begin to learn his patterns, discover any issues we have to deal with before we're less accessible at work, and find out how much milk Baby will need while we're away. We can also find out how much separation anxiety Baby might experience, and hopefully get him used to being apart from his parents for a little while. Spoiler alert: he barely noticed we were gone....Which brings us to:
Read more