Adventures of a little Willard

We have heard that it is best to expose your unborn child to those experiences that he/she will be exposed to once he/she is born. So, this past week the Willards adventured Michigan. Our trip first started with a red eye flight to Detroit. Occasionally Carrie would rub her belly but as I tried to cop a feel, baby was quiet again. Maybe s/he is just trying to re-adjust during turbulence? Once we arrived we spent some time at Dale and Judy's house (Carrie's Mom and StepDad) and then ventured north (4hours) to Cederville in the Upper Peninsula. Not much action out of the little one during this part of the trip. My hope is that s/he is comfortable with air/car travel. Judy and Dale have a beautiful/tranquil home on Lake Huron which most likely soothed baby Willard. After a couple days of relaxing we did some Kayaking. Very little reaction from baby but certainly a valuable experience. I would occasionally look at Carrie and find her rubbing her belly and describing to the baby what was going on: "we're Kayaking now". Very cute motherly stuff. Baby also got to ride the motorboat. Wow! What a great time that was. I think s/he liked it. Especially my single ski slalom action. A little action here and there. Maybe s/he is excited to give it a try. Wed morning the baby must have been chomping at the bit to get out on the water again because I think s/he was doing flips and spins and twirls and every move possible. Very exciting for us. A sign that our baby is enjoying the early exposure to adventure. Overall it was a great trip. The car/air rides home to SF were quiet, a sign that the baby was worn out from such a wonderful trip. It's fun to imagine what is happening with the little one. Stay tuned for more adventures of our little Willard.

21 weeks

Baby is kicking big time this week. Jason has been able to feel it and I can even see it visibly just by looking at my stomach! Pretty crazy.
Jason is in the final stretch with school and so things are winding down. This weekend we finally had some spare time and made it out to Vallejo to visit Mere and Roger. Rog needed Jason for some overdue "Man Projects". Meredith and I made lunch. :-)
Meredith looks absolutely adorable. We are shaped so differently it is funny. I am starting to take bets now as to whether or not we are having a boy or girl. Interested in hearing opinions from anyone willing to wager!
Name guessing continues, but we still haven't settled on any good finalists.....

Kinesiology

If you didn't know it, I study human movement. Call me a nerd but my baby just kicked tonight, or maybe it was a fist, an elbow, a head butt...but the point is I felt it and it was pretty strong. I am not going to analyze it, I am just giong to enjoy it! Hard to believe there's a little person in there.

20 Weeks

The big news this week is that I have started to feel the kicks! They mostly come in the evening and every time I feel it I call out to Jason and he will come right over and put his hand on the belly- but the baby is playing tricks on him and of course, stops. Hopefully soon Daddy will get to feel something!
I have been trying to exercise daily which mostly consists of walking in the canyon. Jason put me through a circuit training the other night and I am definitely feeling the effects!
Today we are at 20 weeks. That means the baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces . and about 10 inches from head to heel.
Getting bigger!!!!......

What do men know about being pregnant?

We will be having a Niece!

So I was wrong about my theory. Meredith and Roger found out yesterday that they are having a girl! We are so excited for them. Jason and I also just realized that we are going to be become an Aunt & Uncle just 2 weeks (depending on how close we are to our due dates) before we become parents! Crazy. I am so glad that my Mom will be out here for both events.
Still no kicks- although I am about to take my first bath to see if that urges anything. I hear that it does.
Thanks to all for your kind wishes!
Much love!

Ultrasound

We had our big ultrasound today and it was so cool. I continue to be amazed when I look at the screen and can see our baby doing flips and waving (yes, he actually appeared to wave at us!)
I continue to refer to him as 'he', but we have no idea. The dct. ask us if we wanted to find out and we both said no, so she made us look away for a moment while she did that part of the scan. At the end she asked us again... "are you SURE you don't want to know the sex- this is your last chance...?". It was sort of hard to resist, but we are both excited to be surprised.
The good news is that she said our baby has a perfect looking spine, the heart looks healthy, we could see all five fingers on the hands, the top view of the brain looks good... she said overall it appears we have a very healthy baby! She said I should be able to feel the kicking any day now. Woo hoo! For some reason I can't wait for that part, although I am sure once he is actively kicking away I may think differently.
I came home and called to find out the results of the 2nd blood test I had last week which was screening for neural tube defects and the test was negative- which is good.
So- so far so good!