There are two exciting things from this week, as you can see from my title. The first is that I’ve felt the baby move twice during the middle of the day. On Thursday there was movement while I was at work, but, more importantly, today the movements turned to definite “popcorn popping” feelings during church. I guess the baby loved the music or our pastor!

I’ve been looking at velour track suits ever since I read that I needed one in Rock Star Mama, the book my mom gave me. Okay, just kidding. I’ve wanted one for years, and now that I see pregnant women all over the place wearing them (looking comfy and cute, by the way), I’ve been looking at them in stores. So far, all the sets I’ve found have been not soft enough, not stretchy enough, the wrong color, the wrong size, you name it… including one set that made my hips look gigantic. Who needs more things to look gigantic? I put it on my birthday list and called it good. But today all of that ended!

Which brings me to exciting thing #2. We were at Eastside Harley after church, and Jim had told me to see if they have any maternity clothes. This really is a joke, because a lot of Harley’s women’s clothing is snug and cropped. I wandered over to the clothing department anyway, because the parts counter isn’t that much fun. Low and behold, a black velour track suit with satin trim… with embroidered Harley logos… in my size!! Jim told me to try it on and, oh my goodness, not only did it fit, the waist band was nice and stretchy, the velour was soft and cozy, the pants were long enough, the sleeves were long enough, and the whole thing looked great. (No gigantic hips here!) I showed Jim and he said, “Looks nice.” 🙂

Needless to say, I was putting it back on the rack to leave it for my birthday list when my generous husband suggested I buy it now and wear it today instead. I should mention that he had already promised to take me out for Chinese only because it sounded good, so I was feeling a little guilty. But he insisted, and now here I sit, typing this blog, wearing the most comfortable outfit since my sundress in Hawaii, and it’s not even my birthday. Ah….

Just because I wrote three paragraphs about my new outfit and only a few sentences about the baby doesn’t mean anything.

This week we also got the results of our Spina Bifada blood test. Peggy left a message on my cell phone saying, “The results are one in… well, they’re very low.” Tomorrow I will start refinishing the rocking chair my mom gave me that she used to rock me in. It seems as though it will be quite the project, but the nice lady at the hardware store gave me lots of tips.

Today we had our 16 week check-up. We got to meet Peggy, the other CNM ANRP in the office who will be there for my delivery if Erin isn’t available. We heard the heartbeat again, but this time all Peggy had to do was place the Doppler two finger widths below my belly button, and there it was, louder and clearer! Last time there was some searching and pressing… not anymore. Peggy said the baby is exactly where it should be and that I look just the right size and that I shouldn’t listen to anyone who says differently. So there you go – 131 pounds and a 32 inch waist is JUST RIGHT for me. Ha!

I had to get a little blood drawn to follow up the quad screen testing from December. The results will give us a risk ratio for Spina Bifida. We got the results from the first test back, and this baby has a 1 in 6900 chance of having Down’s Syndrome and a 1 in 25,000 chance of having Trisomy 19. Those are obviously very good ratios.

We got our 20 week ultrasound appointment booked for March 4th. If the baby cooperates, we should know what gender it is – hooray! We are really looking forward to that.

I added a Babies R Us registry because the furniture and the stroller/car seat system we want are only available there (which I think is kind of odd). The end of this week marks the end of the fourth month – wow!

The exciting news this week is that I felt the baby move last night! People say “a flutter” or “like you’re queasy” or all sorts of things… but it’s different for everyone. My friend Emrie said it felt like popcorn popping inside. But for me, it felt like my stomach was hungry… except I’d just eaten dinner, and the feeling was much lower than my stomach.

I laid on the couch and thought about it, and I decided that it was a feeling I’d never had before, and it’s right where the baby is supposed to be, and it felt like something moving around in there. I told Jim (of course).

My friend Sarah said to eat something little right before bed and then lie there and wait, because that’s when she could feel Aly best this early in her pregnancy. So I did… and sure enough, the same feeling as before came back. But this time it was stronger and more noticeable, and I have to say it felt a little bit like a ball of snakes squiggling around (which grosses me out, but it’s true). I laid there absolutely beaming at Jim with a big cheesy smile on my face.

I can’t wait till it’s more consistent and stronger, because I still feel unsure that’s what it is… but all the mothers I’ve told have assured me that, “If you think it’s your baby, it probably is.” I have a checkup on Thursday, so I’ll tell my midwife all about it.

These pictures are the official 16-week pictures. Compare them to the 13-week pictures by clicking here. We will take pictures every 4 weeks from now until the big day.

I made a new slideshow of pictures for my MySpace and I thought I’d make it available here, too. I’m calling it Pre-Baby Keenes. 🙂 Click here.

I take everything I said about being in between in the last posting back…

Tonight at a party, someone said to me, “Hey, I think I have those jeans too! I love them!” Let’s just keep in mind this person is thin, hip, and stylish. My response was, “Really? You own maternity jeans?” Because I was wearing my new Maternal American maternity jeans! She laughed and laughed… I told her she made my year.

It’s a textbook-perfect occurence in the lives of all pregnant women, and it’s happening to me: nothing fits right. Thanks to Tanya and Emrie, I have some maternity clothes to wear on loan. Too bad they don’t fit yet!

Pre-pregnancy pants work with a Bella band, but maternity pants work better… but only the below-belly band ones, because the other kind are too big. Some of my regular shirts are getting too short (thank goodness it’s winter and I wear mostly sweaters) but the maternity shirts look ridiculously long and large.

This weekend we went to a Young Life leader retreat in Ocean Shores. (It snowed on Sunday on the ocean… weird.) One of the seminars we went to was on parenting, and we liked it. The presenters were Dave and Kelli Pritchard, who wrote a book called Going Public. They have eight children, so they certainly have some experience in the parenting realm!

I went to Jen’s baby shower last night, and we helped design scrapbook pages for the first month of Baby Shuck’s life… what a great idea! I think I might start doing that for myself since I already have a scrapbook and will need to fill it.

I’m so excited that my dad (Grandpa Cole) is going to build a stand for the Moses basket my parents got us of my Amazon wish list. It will be a special gift, and a very useful one. It turns out, my mom used a Moses basket with me, too; that’s how I went to all those baseball and basketball games my brothers were playing in when I was born. I think it’s fun that I wanted to use one for our baby as well.

This week I wore an outfit with a new top and Jim said, “Hey, you look a little pregnant!” It was a compliment. Most people still can’t tell, but of course he can. Even though the baby can’t hear him, he speaks encouraging words into my belly button (he says the sound travels better that way).

It is nice to pass that first trimester milestone. I’m supposed to start gained a pound per week and lots of inches, so that will be interesting. Thanks to my god-daughter, Aly, for the adorable “happy second trimester” present! 🙂

Right now I’m 127 pounds and still have that stylish 30 inch waist that looks like I ate too much over the holidays… it will look more like a baby belly soon! At least it means that, for now, most of my tops still fit.

Today we heard the heart beat at my check-up appointment. There it was, whooshing along at 160 beats per minute. We think ultrasounds are much cooler, but it was still nice to hear.

I also registered for all of our childbirth and newborn classes. We are taking a seven-week Preparation for Childbirth, Breastfeeding, and Infant CPR and Safety. After the baby arrives, we’re also signed up for You and Your New Baby and Infant Massage (which was free with my package deal… and I’ve heard it’s pretty interesting). I pre-registered at the hospital, too. For those of you who are thinking, “Becky is so type-A,” both the nurse and my midwife told me to do those things today!

My midwife recommended two books: Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn, and The BirthPartner, both by Penny Simkin. She’s a renowned birth doula from the Seattle area. Since I’m committed to natural child birth (yes, that’s right!), I’m interested in getting lots of strategies to help that goal. I put them on hold at the library to check them out before I buy them.

Lots of things happened this last week. Most importantly is that everyone knows that a baby is on the way! We mailed our announcements on Wednesday. Since our announcement, we have found out two more couples we know are pregnant – which means a total of nine couples in addition to us. It’s the year of the baby!

I also went maternity shopping with Jen to Village Maternity and to Bump, two boutiques in Seattle. I got a great pair of maternity jeans that should last the whole pregnancy. Apparently I am a little ahead of schedule in the expanding waistline department; although I haven’t gained any more weight, I added another inch to my waist!

On New Year’s Day, we had our annual brunch with the Jones, Skagens, and Shucks – four pregnant women in one room! Here’s a picture of the four of us. We are (from left to right) 12 weeks, 24 weeks, 28 weeks, and 40 weeks pregnant. (You read that correctly – Megan was due January 2nd and is patiently awaiting their new arrival as I write this!)

We had our third ultrasound yesterday in Bellevue. It was amazing! The baby was very active – kicking and moving its arms and head. The ultrasound tech said she rarely sees babies so active this early. We got to see lots of profile shots, like the one above, as well as feet, legs, arms, and even a great hand shot with all the bones.

The purpose of the ultrasound was the nuchal translucency test to measure for our risk factor for birth defects. We will get the official results in about two weeks. The tech said that based on my age and what she saw today, she would guess our risk factor is very low.

Highlights:

• Baby’s heart rate was 168 bpm
• S/he is 45 mm from crown to rump
• S/he measures 11 weeks, 3 days (4 days ahead of before)

We also went maternity/baby scouting at BabyStyle, Mimi Maternity, and Babies R Us. I got another Bella Band. It turns out, the one Sarah got me fits great and makes life soooo much easier for my 28.5 inch waist. It is no longer uncomfortable to sit down in my normal jeans!