Loving the band

My stomach continues to grow and I'm going to assume that Claire's to blame, not Girl Scout cookies. (WHY does no cookie manufacturer copy and sell Samoas?!)

Yesterday I wore work pants to church, as usual, and they were uncomfortably tight. I couldn't wait to get home and trade them out for pajama pants. So today I used the belly band with my work pants for the first time. Love it! It's not "the" Bella Band, just a generic I found on eBay, but it works great. In fact, I think everyone -- man or woman, pregnant or not -- should own a belly band for fat days.

I don't know how long it will let me postpone real maternity pants. Carrie didn't like the band, but Amanda used it for months, and they're about the same size (before and during pregnancy) so maybe it's just personal preference.

Speaking of maternity pants, last week we were in Atlanta and our hotel was one mile from A Pea in the Pod, so I decided to bite the bullet and buy the 7 for All Mankind maternity jeans I've been lusting after. I'd seen on their website that the style I wanted was $25 off and I'd called the 800-number to ask if that discount applied in stores as well as online (I was told it did) and how long it was good for (I was told through the end of February).

So Matt and I went to the store, they had one pair in my size, I tried them on, I loved them. Just to make sure, I asked the saleswoman, "These are $25 off, right?" And what did she say? "That sale ended yesterday!" NO! Now I can't buy them for full price, on principle.

I'm going to write a letter to A Pea in the Pod, explain the situation and ask if they'll send me a $25 coupon, but I'm sure they won't. I wish I'd never even known about that short-lived sale. I also wish I'd emailed A Pea in the Pod about how long the sale was going on, rather than just calling -- now it's my word against theirs.

There are a zillion pairs of 7 maternity jeans on eBay, but I'm very hesitant to buy them without trying them on because so many of them have been altered. I don't buy 7s for the label, I buy them for the length -- so I don't want to shell out a lot of money for a pair of jeans that started out with a 34-inch inseam and are now down to 31. If I'm going to wear maternity jeans that aren't quite long enough, I can just get them at Target. Plus, if I buy them off of eBay and they don't work, I'm stuck with them -- I can't just return them to the store -- and I do NOT want to have to deal with reselling them.

Back to my expanding stomach, today was the first day at CrossFit that my stomach definitely hit the ground while I was doing pushups. It was weird -- it felt like there was a ball under me. I didn't like it. I'm also quitting ab workouts as of today because I'm afraid of building ab muscles around the bump.

Can you believe we're more than halfway through this pregnancy? Or only halfway through -- I can't decide which.

P.S. We still haven't decided on a middle name ...

Claire

First things first. I think we've settled on Claire as the baby's first name. The middle name is still up in the air but I promise we'll decide before she's born (and probably a lot sooner, like by next week). But it would be OK if you wanted to start getting attached to the idea of an adorable new human named Claire Kirby.

We like Claire because (in our opinion) it's pretty and classic -- I can imagine a grandmother named Claire just as easily as a baby Claire. It's feminine but not girly, simple but not plain. And as the 66th-most-common name of 2008, it's a level of popularity that we like: not weird or unusual -- everyone will recognize it and spell it right -- but she also won't be one of four Claires in her kindergarten class.

Not that Matt (No. 6 for 1978) and I (No. 1 for 1979) have any lingering resentments about that. :)

Saturday we ventured to Babys 'R' Us for the first time and it was, in a word, overwhelming. The average baby probably actually needs less than 10 percent of what is sold in there, but whatever. We didn't plan to buy anything on that trip, we just wanted to start getting an idea of what's out there for the few big-ticketish items we probably are going to buy before she's born: crib, "play yard" (Pack 'n' Play), stroller and glider/rocking chair/recliner.

I think this is the crib we're going to get: It doesn't convert to a toddler bed, which is the current rage, but that's actually our preference because we hope to have a few more kids in fairly quick succession and therefore will probably just keep a nursery set up in our house for the next decade. The kids can all use the same crib and other nursery furniture and after outgrowing the crib they'll probably go straight to a full-size bed.

We were thrilled when Terry told us this weekend that Matt's baby furniture was still around somewhere, and yesterday we found and claimed it. The dresser was in Stephen's guest room and the chest of drawers was in his old room at Ron's house. We brought both of them home and I'm going to beg Terry to help me faux-finish them for the nursery. I want something gender-neutral, maybe a good green. One of these pieces will double as the changing table with a changing table topper similar to this:

OK, that is all ... for now.

Ultrasound pictures

I can't decipher much from them, but here are Tuesday's ultrasound pictures. She wiggled around a lot but didn't do anything awesome like give us a thumbs-up, like Brianna did. :)

We thought we'd be ready to announce the name by now but we aren't quite there. It's such a big decision -- so permanent! And so many things to consider. Will her monogram spell out something vulgar? Is there a famous murderer with this name? Does it suit a teenager, business woman, mom, grandmother as well as it suits a cute baby? Will people constantly misspell it? Aaaah!

We're probably 90 percent decided and hope to make a final decision in a few days so we (and you) can start referring to her by name. Although for now I'm happy just to be able to call her "her" instead of "it."

It's a girl!

Click here for details ...

Visible bump

Finally, finally, I have a bump that shows up in pictures! I can still wear all of my pants but most of my work pants are starting to get tight. I can probably squeeze another couple of weeks out of them. My jeans are still fine since they sit lower than my work pants.

Check out the growth.

This was taken at 4 weeks, right after I found out I was pregnant:

I took pictures at 8 weeks, 12 weeks, 16 weeks ... still no change ... then this one at 17 weeks (I thought the bump would show up in last week's pictures, since there was no mistaking it in real life, but it didn't):

Then, today's 18-week photo. Can you believe the difference a week made?Time to get diligent about the stretch-mark-prevention cream. I wish I believed in that stuff but I think it's more about genetics (but I'll use it anyway).

P.S. Have you ever seen such a disgusting-looking sweet potato?

Making him/herself known

I've started feeling the baby move a lot more and it's feeling less like bubbles than like definite movements (I can't feel kicking yet). I have noticed I almost always feel the movements only on my left side -- can any of you more experienced moms or pregnant people tell me if that's normal?

Both times that the doctor listened to the baby's heartbeat it (the heartbeat) was on my right side, so maybe it's just that the baby's legs are on the left side and I'm feeling them kick. I guess that could be the explanation but I pictured the baby moving around a lot more than that, not staying in essentially the same position all this time.

Last night, or actually this morning, around 5 I woke up flat on my back and felt something poking out of the left side of my stomach. It was definitely solid and it felt like an elbow but I'm guessing it was a foot. It felt like you could have seen it poking out, but since the room was dark I don't know. I lay there for a while rubbing it, trying to get it to move so I'd know for sure it was the baby and not a tumor or something, but it just stayed there until I got up to use the bathroom.

When I got back in bed it was gone and I fell back asleep. Although I sometimes have very lifelike dreams and occasionally have even confused them with reality, I am about 95 percent sure this really happened. And Amanda assured me this morning that it was possible to feel that this early.

And speaking of dreams, I had a VERY vivid dream last night that the baby is a boy. For the record, I still think it's a girl -- but I know it's 50/50 and don't really put any stock in gut feelings (or dreams) about things like this.