Felt a foot!

We've been really busy the last few weeks planning the baby room, going to birthing classes, worrying about leaking (TMI), trips to the doctors, and a surprise ultrasound.  Let's start with the baby room.  David is really excited to start painting and putting up the chair rail in the baby room.  He plans on doing it while I am away visiting my family in Arkansas.  We might actually paint this weekend but are still unsure of the color!  Baby R's room will be adorable and is coming together already!  Birthing classes are fun!  I didn't think I'd say that, but we are learning alot and getting more comfortable with all that might happen during the labor and delivery of our baby! It is so cute to see Dave taking notes and getting a little anxious about the whole process. It makes it that much more real to both of us!  We met a great couple in the class and plan on meeting up with them after both our babies are born.  So far we've learned about the whole labor process including all the machines and interventions that might need to be used during delivery, all about epiderals and epiosiotomies, and even got to hear our birthing teacher practice moaning!   Relaxation techniques have been interesting with the use of ice in our hands and music playing in the background.  We have started thinking about how we want our birth to go and what to include in our birth plan.  It has become apparent that I don't like too much talking during pain and definitely like a laugh here and there.  With a wise cracker as a husband, that could go either way!  Will I want that during labor...hmmm...I am not so sure!  The two doctor visits this last week were due to my anxiety about whether or not I was leaking fluid.  Turns out both times the test came out negative so the consensus is that I need to practice my kegels more!  Also turns out that I have a touch of maternal anxiety, which leads me to my midwife, Lois, saying, "Let just do an ultrasound to be sure".   Well, ultrasound was wonderful!  Baby R looks beautiful and we even got to see him or her in 3D.  What a little cutie!  I am so excited to meet our baby.  I know I've said that before, but as I get bigger the feeling grows more intense.  I am so excited to be a mother and have Dave's baby.  I know he will make an incredible Daddy and talks to our little one all the time.   My appetite is definitely something to laugh at!  Dave can't believe how much I eat sometimes and we spent Valentines at Arezzo were I couldn't wait to eat!  I love italian and we both enjoyed great meals.  We had bought desserts from Cocoa & Fig (where we got our wedding desserts) and enjoyed those when we got home.  Then today I ate a big mac, fries, and a shamrock shake! I love me some shamrock shake!  I still manage to work out and walk on the treadmill but this baby might end up being a big one!  I need to slow down on the food.  I am going to end this blog with the fun event that happened tonight.  I was using Dave's Ipad and all of a sudden felt a kick to the Ipad!  I went and felt where I thought it was coming from and pushed in on it!  Then I felt a body part kick back and felt my actual baby's foot for the first time.   I've felt the baby inside but never felt an actually body part!  What another incredible pregnancy experience.  Baby R, I felt you for the first time today!   It is amazing how you can love something so much and I've never even seen you in person yet!  100 more days!

Wow, I finally felt something!

OK, so as you can tell from Jenni's comments in her previous blogs posts, I'm not much of writer. It's not that I don't have anything to say, I just lack the grace of putting words together in an eloquent manner. That being said, tonight something happened that I didn't expect that's worthy of writing about.

For the last month or so, every couple days, Jenni would run up to me, place my hand on her belly with hopes that I would feel what she just felt. I would sit there, with my hand on her belly, in total quietness and deep concentration, waiting for something to indicate to me that what's been growing in her stomach the last 24 weeks would give me some kind of knock of life. Each time she felt something, she would ask "Did you feel that? How about now? You had to feel that!" Each time we came up empty...until tonight.

As I was sitting at my computer in deep concentration measuring the pros and cons of a miter cut vs a coping cut for a chair rail that I plan to install in our baby room, Jenni came running downstairs. She said that the baby was kicking like she hasn't felt before (I'm sure as a result of the 2 brownies she had for dessert!). She sat down on the sofa and told me this has got to be the time where I would feel something. I sat down next to her, place my hand on her belly and sure enough, I felt a kick! A sign of life!

What an amazing feeling. The fact that this little bean has grown into a 1 pound, 12 inch being inside my wife's belly is truly a wonder. It was a great feeling to finally feel what my wife has been feeling for the past month. Can't wait to feel the next kick!