22 Weeks: Past the Halfway Point!

He's a mover and a shaker....

So we're finally past the halfway point - YAY!!!!  I still feel amazing.  I've put on about 9 lbs. so far, so I still have lots of growing to do.  It's funny - I always thought I'd be one of those women who eat like crazy and put on 40 lbs or so since I was quite the chubby teenager.  Now, I have been wondering if I'm putting on enough weight.  I'm certainly not hungry all the time nor am I "eating for 2."  All that "stuff" about digestion slowing down must be true - I find I have to make myself eat 3-4 small meals a day.  Sugar and I were having it out for a while.  Sugar was definitely winning this last month, but we have finally come to terms.  Man, I was always a salt person (popcorn and potato chips), but my inner sweet tooth came out of the closet for this pregnancy.  Don't get between me and the fruit bowl, the ice cream, Butterfingers candy bars or Werther's and Lifesaver's candy.  

At least I'm still going to the gym about 3 times a week.  I've finally found a couple prenatal yoga classes which I'm going to try out next week.  For some reason they are both later in the evening, like 6-8PM.  What pregnant woman has enough energy to drive to a yoga class at that hour?  Well, if they're good, I guess we'll figure it out.  I also started swimming about a month ago, when we had a few nice warm day.  However, June gloom has taken over and it's been too cool to swim.  Plus, why would anyone swim if you couldn't also lay out in the sun?  I expect July and August will be clearer and warmer.

I've been reading pregnancy and birth books like they are going out of style.  Everything had said I should start feeling movement by week 20, and I hadn't really.  Just as I was about to e-mail my mommy friends to ask what the difference between feeling gas bubbles and baby movement was, it suddenly got clearer and more definite for me.  I knew.  Now he moves all the time - it's like someone is rubbing me from the inside as they flip around and dance and swim.  He changed positions twice during my last Ultrasound and actually kicked back at the US Technician when she was pushing down to get a good look at his organs. He's like his father - doesn't like to be looked at or analyzed!  He kept hiding his face behind his hands when we tried to get a good photo.

Andre, Phoenix an I have had all kinds of tests and several Ultrasounds so far, due to my age and our family genetics, etc.  I have one more US at the end of this month.  Everything points to this being a perfect baby boy, no chromosomal problems, no spinal problems, no development problems, good weight and size and very active.  I couldn't be happier.  I'll be 40 this July and I already got the gift I've been waiting my whole life for.  I feel so lucky and I thank God every day.

So, as it stands, Phoenix James Vander will arrive around October 14th.  If everything goes as planned, he'll be born at home, with Andre assisting and all the cats watching!  As you can imagine, we'll be staying home for the holidays of 2009 with our best Christmas present ever.

Here are the latest US photos.  I'll get more at the end of the month.  Much love to everyone!

17 weeks and counting

Well, 17 weeks along and I'm still waiting for something crazy to happen.  For example, I'm wondering which night someone will sneak a basketball into my belly!

Being pregnant has been a pleasure so far.  I was never sick in any way.  Not much changed except I started talking to myself in public and don't get between me and a grocery store or you'll be sorry.  It's funny though - I like the idea of food much more than the food itself, so I keep getting more and stranger things to fill the frig and the cupboards, and I sometimes don't eat any of it.  Andre is often challenged when trying to find something quick to eat these days..... Although I am just starting to show (looking like a small egg with arms and legs), I have only put on about 3 pounds so far.  The change in shape is just enough to make most of my normal clothes, that don't stretch, a little uncomfortable.  My wardrobe these days consists of yoga pants, t-shirts and tank tops, with the occasional sweat short on warm days.  I keep trying to find cute sundresses, but obviously all the good designers went on vacation this year.  I'm appalled at the choices I have.

For those of you who don't know, Andre and I had some concerns at the beginning of this pregnancy.  Andre's family has a genetic translocation.  Without going into too much detail, this was something Andre had the chance of passing on to a child.  So in the creating of a new genetic string in a child, he could pass on perfect chromosomes, too many or too few chromosomes or the healthy translocation he has.  Bottom line, this just increased my chance of miscarriage over what was already stacked against me because of my age.  I had a special test done at 12 weeks, called a chorionic villus sampling, to check out the chromosomes of the little one.  Fortune smiled upon us and the test came back clear.  The baby has 46 perfect little chromosomes and two of them were X and Y.  So, we got to know super early on that it was a boy!  I go in for my Level II Ultrasound on My 18th, so I'll have new photos to update with.  We had a name chosen long before I got pregnant so we are lucky we created the little boy who's coming.  Phoenix James is expected to make his debut on October 14th or so.....

We have a busy summer ahead, trying to get in some travel before we're both home for a while.  We're going to Florida early in July for my 40th birthday to stay in the Keys with good friends Phil and Paige, and meet their cute son.  We are trying to plan a day to swim with the dolphins while we are there.  Not only is it a spiritually beautiful thing to do when you're pregnant, but some studies have shown that the dolphin's sonar affects unborn children in many positive ways including faster brain development and being ambidextrous.  It's something we've both wanted to do when we decided to have kids.  We are also heading out to the shores of Massachusetts at the end of July to spend some time with Andre's family at their beach house.  I can't wait to relax at the beach!

August will be a month of parties.  We will probably plan a baby shower sometime in Santa Barbara.  We will also be going to the crazy bachelor/bachelorette weekend for our good friends Joe and Jillian, who are getting married.  I imagine I will be chaperoning!  September will be spent planning for the arrival of our son, except for the last big weekend of the month.  I am a bridesmaid in our friends, Joe and Jillian's wedding.  I'm sure I wont be the sexy bridesmaid J&J planned for, and hopefully Phoenix doesn't decide to show early!

So that's it for now.  More photos to come.  Hope this finds everyone happy and loving life.  We certainly are!