Holidays

Paul and I have been busy visiting family in America for the past week.  With all of our treking around NY and NJ I completely forgot about our baby blog.  We also lost track of week 20 and forgot to take a baby bump picture, but yesterday we did make sure to take a picture for week 21!!  When we return home we'll post week 21+22 in 1 blog post. 

Baby has been kicking a lot the past week and I can feel the kicks getting stronger and stronger as the days continue.  For instance last night all I wanted to do was fall asleep and I couldn't because the little squirt was kicking away, I really felt like I had an octopus inside my belly.  I guess this is just a taste of what is to come once he is born!

Another new thing going on is I am now getting leg cramps when I sleep at night.  They don't happen every night, but they feel like charlie horses and some nights are better than others (I measure a good night on only getting one cramp...sometimes I've had as many as 10 in each leg through out the whole night)

Paul and I are in America until January 4th.  We'll get back to Amsterdam Jan 5th and I'll update everyone with more about our holiday and New Years then!

We can not wait to ring in the New Year 2010 will be the year our little baby boy is born and we really become Opera Mommy and American Dad!

Half way point

It's just amazing that I am already half way through my pregnancy.  Paul and I are so excited to be having a little boy.  The ultrasound last Tuesday was just amazing, we could not believe how much detail you could see.  Of course our little boy was camera shy and gave us a hard time with body measurement and taking cute pictures, but in the end we got him to behave.   Another thing that we found out is our little boy is measuring 2 weeks larger than he's supposed to be, but his brain development is right on schedule.  He had a big belly for 20 weeks so we were told that they would send the results to our midwife and she would decide if we would get another ultrasound to see if it was just him all scrunched up or I may have to modify my diet... and if he stays big, they said we might need to change my birth plan (between thanksgiving and christmas I guess he developed a little belly like we all do from all those yummy foods!)
I am hoping everything is okay, but would love another ultrasound, see him on the screen is just so much fun, he kicks and squirms around so much while he's on screen.  it's so cool to watch him kick and roll and actually feel it!!   After the New Year we have a 23 week appointment so then we'll find out if we're getting 1 more ultrasound.


For the past couple of days Paul and I have been running around America for Christmas.  Our flight here was great, landing was not fun on my belly, by the time we got to the runway I felt like my belly had been on a roller coaster also we had a bumpy ride home in the car so somewhere in Staten Island I got sick and we needed to pull over.   This is the second time I've gotten motion sickness, I will be prepared for this to happen on the way home just in case.  But now that Christmas is over we we're not driving long distances everyday it feels like we can relax and just be on vacation.

It's a BOY!!

Our little boy with his mouth open.  (Ashley thinks he's singing)

                                  Giving us the Peace sign.

                                   The spine

                                       Two little feet, you can see the detail on the bottom one best

                                  Last but not least our confirmation that it's a boy. The penis.

Hunger & Thirst call

I now wake up in the middle of the night (3AM) starving.  And of course I have not caught on that I should put some food in my night stand so instead I have to trek upstairs in the cold hallway to find some source of food.  Last night I grabbed the Dutch equivalent to a raspberry nutrigrain bar.  I did not have the patients for anything else. 

But then at 5AM I wake again and I was so thirsty.  All I could do was gulp water from the sink as fast as I can because I brought my drinking cup upstairs earlier in the night...damn!  I also notice at this point that there is snow all over the ground outside, that sort of made up for the 1000 times I woke up during the night.

I woke up again to our new wake up light/alarm clock.  I suggest ANYONE who suffers from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) get one ASAP.  Last night was our first time trying it out.  We tried it for Paul's wake up time of 6:30AM....and since I've been getting up with him for the past month I was fine with it.  I mean I wake up every 45-90 minutes anyway!

This clock is amazing, if your alarm is set for 6:30AM the light begins to start getting brighter and brighter from 6AM-6:30AM....then at 6:30 it's at it's brightest and then birds start to sing.  We both woke up feeling amazing at 6:30 in the morning.  This machine is awesome, I don't know why we didn't get one earlier.

Paul also got me a pregnancy pillow called the doomoo, it's a long U shaped pillow with little mirco fibers inside to help me sleep, last night I had to many pillows on the bed to enjoy it, but I'm sure with a couple more experimental nights it will be my perfect pregnancy companion!   I am debating on bringing it to Paris with us this weekend and possibly the US for Christmas! 

This past weekend Paul and I tried both Saturday and Sunday to make a visit to the Sophia Birthing Center, but it turns out that all the rooms were booked for the weekend so they couldn't give the tour since there was nothing to show.  So Monday I called and they said the tour would be happening at 3:30 so I hopped on the metro and got to the birthing center for the tour.  The nurses has trouble speaking English, but my Dutch is well enough to get  what I need.  The tour guide did not speak any English so I had to pay real close attention to every question the other 3 women asked so I didn't ask the same question twice.  It turns out I didnt have to ask any questions because everyone else asked mine.

The Birthing center itself is on the 4th floor of a childrens hospital which is also attached to a normal hospital.  Erasmus medical center is just enormous.  I always get lost when going there looking for a certain building for the first time.  After the tour I felt even more comfortable with our decision to have the baby here.  I was holding off on sending out the application until we saw the actual facility. 

Baby Bump week 17 Vienna Christmas Market

Paul and I spent a long weekend in Vienna touring around the city and visiting Christmas markets.  It was so bitter sweet so know that next year we won't be going to a Christmas market, unless we can find one in VA.
So Vienna was beautiful.  I am going to be posting pictures on my facebook account.   I did find that traveling was very different while pregnant, Paul and I needed to take breaks a lot for hot cocoa and a snack.  Hunger came on very suddenly, it's weird one moment I'm fine then a minute later I feel like I'm going to faint and need food more than ever.  Paul says I get this scary look on my face, that says "give me food now, or else!"  I meant to pack some granola bars, but forgot them at the last minute.
Another surprise was that I needed a daily nap.  So normally Paul and I would go back to the hotel around 4:30-5:00 and I would rest.  If I didn't rest I got these headaches, that I thought we brought on by hunger but after eating they would not go away so resting was my next option and it worked like magic.

I had no problem eating anything while out at restaurants, we ate at this famous restaurant called Figlmuhler.  We forgot to make a reservation but went when we were not to hungry so we waited 90 minutes in line for the wiener schnitzel.   And it was 100% worth the wait, I was just so happy that Saturday night the weather was mild enough to wait outside 45F.  Sunday was a different story, it was below freezing.

Paul and I got lucky and got reasonably prices/good view seats for the opera Ariadne auf Naxos by R. Strauss.  The operetta itself was weird, but it's always nice to see the less popular operas by famous composers!

Week 17 was rather boring...I had a couple emotional weepy moments.  I have to keep track of my own weight gain because for some reason the midwife doesn't (i really don't mind that)  But I was shocked on Saturday because 2 weeks ago I had only gained 3-4lbs.  And Saturday I had gained a total of 10lbs.  That's 6-7lbs in 2 weeks.  It slightly shocked me, I've never gained weight so fast, but I thought more about it and I've been eating A LOT since thanksgiving!!  And when we went to the midwife yesterday she said I look perfectly healthy.  So I'll just keep up the extra helpings of chicken and potatoes!!!!

1st Baby movement...i think

Last night I was at yoga at 9PM because I just had to much energy and needed to let it out so I could sleep, plus my knee was hurting and it needed a good stretch. So we start a new pose by laying on our stomachs. It has begun to feel weird laying on my belly, but it's not uncomfortable. Well when I took this pose I felt some fluttering in my tummy. It didn't startle me, but felt funny and I continued my yoga pose.

In this yoga pose you lay on your belly and put your arms out in front of you and pull them behind you like you are swimming, a the same time you do this you lift your legs up. It looks as though you are swimming on the floor....a couple times when I had my arms straight in front of me I felt this popping/flutter in my belly.


I have a midwife appointment in 1 week, then I'm going to ask if it's okay that I continue doing this yoga pose on my belly. I'm thinking in January I'm going to sign up for prenatal yoga classes. I'm beginning to feel like the pregnant girl in a yoga class filled with kick boxers and super fit crazy strong fitness enthusiasts