Weeks 15, 16, 17 & 18: I had a dream ...

July 7-July 13, July 14-July 20, July 21-July 27 & July 28-August 3, 2008:

So the pregnancy is going well. However, I do have to say that the super-tired experience one is supposed to get during the first trimester actually hit its hardest at the beginning of this trimester. Other than that, my appetite is returning (though I never got morning sickness my first trimester, I did have "the evening quease," as I called it, which just made me feel a bit off and un-hungry), and I'm feeling good.

Also of note is the fact I've been doing yoga since I ... retired. It's not preggie yoga, and with the dysautonomia and pregnancy, I've had to make some compromises, but it feels good to be doing something helpful nonetheless. This, readers, is why in some of the belly pics I appear to be wearing the same outfits despite the passage of time. I have a small assortment of yoga-appropriate attire, which I rotate in a tight circle thankyouverymuch. Anyway, before your superficial thoughts interrupted me ... oh yes, yoga. My instructor, Lynn, is a real hoot. She's all about thanking the universe and not judging oneself and concentrating on her third eye and all of that. While I don't share all of her philosophies, I appreciate her enthusiasm for doing something she loves and helping others chill out. And, geez, who doesn't love the comfort of a good child's pose or the freedom of an emphatic "ohm"?

Ready for a few pics before I tell you more?

Week 15 (tummy and toe check):

Week 16 end/17 beginning (tummy and toe check):

So week 17 I bought some maternity jeans at Target and decided to wear them out to the movies with some friends. While I still fit in my regular jeans, their comfort factor dwindled to a very low degree, and I'd taken to the middle-aged-man habit of unbuttoning/unzipping them after a meal or during long sitting periods. So, since a movie to me means eating and sitting, I thought maternity jeans might be most appropriate (I'm comfy, and my pals don't have to see my underwear, so everybody wins. By the way, I always wore my normal underwear. I feel like that's an accomplishment.).

Week 17 (first time I wore my maternity jeans!):

Still not too easy to tell with my shirt down:

So, while I don't generally think of myself as psychic, I will say I had a fascinating dream the night of July 25. I've had baby dreams off and on throughout the pregnancy, though admittedly, most of them involved Nestle or baby animals in the role of the baby rather than an actual human child. No dreams that I actually gave birth to a nonhuman, mind you, but just that I was acting as parent in a protective manner toward these animals. Apparently, this is common for first-time moms to be, so no judging. Anyway, the human-baby dreams I'd had did involve having a boy, but I never saw the face, and the baby was always somehow taken away from me. I later came to think maybe these dreams represented the baby I lost in my first pregnancy, and to this day, I kind of think that baby may have been a boy due to this. However, this particular night, I had a dream where I saw Jon playing with a beautiful baby girl on our family-room floor. I could see her so vividly, and she was so precious, as was the interaction between the two of them, and my heart melted. I knew in the dream I had given birth to her Dec. 30, '08, and she weighed 7 lb., 6 oz., and was born with lots of dark hair. It was so realistic and different from my other dreams and cemented in my head that after I woke up, I wrote down the above info on my calendar so I'd remember when I had the dream and what it included for later reference. I still had a while to go to see whether my dream would have any real-world merit.

The next week, I started to feel some movement, which was very exciting. It wasn't the fluttery kind I'd heard of but it felt like a series of pops or little bubbles bursting. Frankly, at times it was hard to tell whether it was the miracle of a life or the miracle of digestion.

Week 18: Ok, so it's not a very legitimate belly pic, but there are more of those to come -- more belly than you could imagine, in fact. At this stage in the game, though I have worn maternity pants, I can still wear "normal-people clothes," too, as Jon calls them. Ahem.

Weeks 13 & 14: Where's the bear?

June 23-29 & June 30-July 6, 2008:

So, this week we had another ultrasound along with some testing. The test results were good news (all looks normal! praise!). Amazingly, the munchkin has already outgrown its gummi-bear phase and, as promised, has actually started to look like a little person! Check it out! You can see the baby waving, too. This is at our perinatologist's office, and she already knows the sex this early. We (I) want to be surprised, so we're not finding out. Oh, and for those of you who think you're clever, no, that's just the cord. Geez.

And now for the anticipated return of the belly pics:

Week 13 (tummy from the side and aerial view -- foot check!):

Week 14:

Weeks 11 & 12: It's a ... gummi bear!

June 9-June 15 & June 16-June 22, 2008:

This week began with a bang! Jon and I went to our ultrasound at the Woman's Hospital of Texas, where we'll deliver our baby. I was a complete wreck during the wait ... there were so many what-if worries racing through my head. I was so completely afraid that we wouldn't see what we hoped to see when the images came up, and I just kept praying that God would ease my anxiety and our healthy baby would appear on that screen.

Faithfully, God gave us our ... gummi bear. The nurse was tickled at how adorable our itty-bitty baby looked; we noticed a remarkable resemblance to a gummi bear, which is what we started calling Baby Biggerstaff. We were, however, assured that this would evolve into an actual human-looking baby eventually. As cute as the nostalgic-candy kid was, we felt relieved to know it would not stay like this forever! Of course, the gummi bear wasn't the only image we marveled over. The baby also took on the appearance of a T-Rex and a snowman. Well, curious readers, see for yourself.

T-Rex, as it would naturally appear hanging from its back on a ceiling (can't you hear the "rahr!"):

Gummi bear (sideways; head is to the right. That little ball on the top left is the yolk sac. So cute we could eat it up! Whoa, not the yolk sac. Eew. You know what I mean):

Snowman (where'd the legs go?):

So, the ultrasound turned out quite well, and Jon and I also got to hear the heartbeat for the first time. People always say it sounds like galloping horses, but I thought it sounded like cars driving through a high-speed tunnel. Hmmm. I guess I have a slightly more urban perception. Anyway, it was music to our ears.

The following week, we had to let go of an old friend. As our family and friends know, Jon and I have had his-and-hers '92 Toyota Corollas for years. Yes, we still had our first cars up until recently, when I sold my 'Rolla to my brother and got a used Hyundai Santa Fe (we knew kids would be on their way before long, so we needed more vehicular space ... and something to tow Jon's bass boat, because my car looked flat-out ridiculous hauling a trailer). However, we'd continued to hang on to Jon's ride. We just hated to part with it; it had so many memories for us (he'd had it as long as we'd been together), plus it had always been so reliable. Yet, Jon decided it was time to move on up, so literally within half an hour of him posting it on Craig's list, it had received several offers, been sold and been driven away by its new owners (whom we liked -- we couldn't give it to people we didn't approve!).

Here's the Red 'Rolla in all its glory:

Yes, it still functioned with all its experience; Jon took fantastic care of it. And, yes, that is 313,268 miles. Wow.

Here's Jon being sad (you can also see our new '08 Corolla in our driveway; this is our first totally new car, but we still have to go with what we know! I just hope we didn't hurt old 'Rolla's feelings :

And here's our old friend being driven off into the sunset to go live on a retired-car farm where it can roam free and breathe easy. Actually, it was destined to be someone else's first car. The nice couple who bought it planned to turn it over to their driving-aged kiddo. Sigh. At least the 'Rolla would again be surrounded by youth!

As we said good-bye to our beloved car, we also said good-bye to my first trimester. This was exciting, because I was ready to graduate from this risk-fraught trimester and move on to the "golden age" of pregnancy: the second trimester, when legend tells energy and appetite return! Also, we finally planned to tell friends and family sometime this trimester ... woo-hoo! By the way, I did have an appointment with my cardioelectrophysiologist this week, and with the pregnancy keeping up my fluid levels, it appears I'm doing wonderfully and my dysautonomia is more or less in remission!

Oh, and I think the belly pics will return next week ... still can't find the missing photos from these last few weeks. Hmmm.