17 weeks

Not much to update on the baby front here....I definitely have a belly, though.

Hopefully it gets a little rounder and less...fat looking soon. I had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday and all sounded good - hearing the heartbeat is always amazing, and insanely, I was actually able to feel my uterus about an inch below my belly button after the midwife pointed it out. That's just weird. It's like...I don't know what it's like. It's like I'm growing a human or something. In a space that wasn't there before.

Chris and I have kind of started talking about names. Boy names are going to be a challenge. Chris really likes Riley, but that might just be because, oh, I don't know...he's used to the name since it's OUR DOG'S NAME ALREADY. Yeah, that is *not* going on the list. He's not a fan of my top boy names - Caleb, Cale, Colby, Levi, Rhys, Ryder. For girls we both like Annika, which I love because it'd honor both my mom Ann and his sister Ana. Plus, it's cute with lots of nickname potential. I also love Alice Anna (YES THEY HAVE TO BE TOGETHER), Annelise, Anneli, Briony, Ellery, and Elodie. It will be interesting to see if we stay settled on Annika. I won't say it's my FAVORITE off the list, but it's one of them.

The next big thing now is Friday, April 16, when we find out if we even need to worry about boy's names, or if it's a little Annika Bananika cooking away in there. After that, it's Aruba on April 23 and then the next milestone is May 14, which will be viability day (meaning that if, god forbid, the baby should be born that day there's a good chance for survival). That's only 24 weeks...can you believe a baby born at 24 weeks can survive? Insanity. Yet they still haven't figured out a good male birth control...hmmm.

15 weeks!

Wow...I can't believe I went from 13 weeks to 15 weeks since I last posted. Truly, it's been going pretty quickly since 9 or so weeks, and I hope that trend continues! I am counting down the days (35!) until I next get to see Bowser and find out if it's a Chris, Junior or Little Lara incubating in there.

This week - actually just the last couple of days - I've really felt legitimately pregnant. No symptoms or anything, but just the fact that 15 weeks feels pretty solidly into this thing, and like it's okay to be showing, and like OH MY GOD there might actually probably be a baby at the end of all this. It's an exciting feeling.

I just got back from Vegas yesterday, after spending the week with Darbi and other photographers. Let me tell you...Vegas at 29 and pregnant is a very different experience than Vegas at 22 and drunk. Not that I've been to Vegas at 22 and drunk, but I've been there at 25 and drunk, so close. But we saw some girls dancing and drinking and acting like a damn fool, and I have never felt so far away from the point in life where they are. Half of me feels like I'm about to become a teen mom statistic (though I'm 10 years past that) and half of me feel ancient (my first baby at 30?).

I'm now anxiously awaiting the next huge milestones...feeling the baby move, which hopefully should happen in the next two weeks; the 20 week ultrasound; finding out if it's a boy or girl....and holy cow, I can't wait.

13 weeks - and an ultrasound!

Yesterday I officially entered the second trimester AND had the best day of this pregnancy so far - Chris and I got to see the baby! We had our NT scan (which screens for abnormalities like Down's Syndrome or Trisomy 13/18), and part of the screening involved an ultrasound. It was the first time Chris has gotten to see the baby, and he was memorized. Little Bowser was doing all sorts of acrobatics - flipping around, bouncing up and down, waving...it was absolutely amazing. I can't TELL you how amazing. I wish we had a video of it. Here's a picture of her or him waving:


For you non-ultrasound techs out there, the head is the oval on the left, the body is the larger oval on the lower right, and the little arm is sticking out of the body at a 90 degree angle, with the hand by the face.

Or here's the annotated version for those of you who still see gray and black blotches against a gray and black background:


I'll add more pictures when I actually get the pics scanned instead of just taking a picture of a picture with my phone.

We also scheduled our next ultrasound, where, if baby cooperates, we get to find out if it's a boy or a girl!! April 16!