Leah's Belly - Week 21

Here are some family and belly pictures for week 21. Those are our cats, Finn and Nellie, with us in the last picture.

Sonogram Picture - 20 weeks

Here is the sonogram picture from the anatomy scan. You can see parts of his leg bones and the outline of his head really well.

Reading Time

One of Jonathan's favorite things to do is read to the baby. The other day we were at a maternity store and Jonathan found a book that his parents had read to him when he was little. The book, Anatole, is about a French mouse who becomes a cheese taster in Paris. It reminded us of Ratatouille, which was a great movie. Another book we found is called The Dot - it's about a young girl who finds the courage to become an artist, something she thought she could never do. Jonathan has a knack for imitating accents and he finds great reading voices for all of the characters.

We also play music for the baby - we started off with softer songs like Bob James and classical music, but we're slowly making our way towards Led Zeppelin and Eric Clapton (in his younger days). My father would be so proud if the baby was born knowing all the words to Ramble On!

Pictures - Week 15

These pictures were taken in my parents' backyard when I was 15 weeks. My momma and I were undoubtedly talking for hours about strollers and feeding times, while my dad was probably inside watching the Red Sox game.

Exercising Again

Today I went for my first run since I found out I was pregnant. It was a little over 3 miles and I went really slowly, but it felt great. I didn't even notice the size of my growing belly. When I first found out I was pregnant I tried running, but it felt really strange. I guess I just had to give myself some more time. All the research I've done says that as long as you don't start running for the first time during pregnancy then you're fine. It will be nice if I can continue it because it lifts my energy level afterwards.

It's a...

...boy! We found out at our 20 week sonogram that we are having a baby boy. At first we wanted it to be a surprise, but when it came down to it, we didn't have the patience.

The sonogram was called an anatomy scan, and the doctor looked at each individual organ to make sure there are no complications. At first I couldn't see the screen because the technicians were facing it away from me, so Jonathan went over and translated what was on the screen. Then the doctor came in and thoroughly explained what we were looking at, which was thoughtful of him since the technicians had been making some pretty strange faces. Our boy looks to be healthy so far, measuring 10 centimeters long and 12 ounces. (As my sister said, he's about the measurements of a soda can!)

A general summary of weeks 7 - 20

Since I didn't get around to creating this blog until now (20 weeks), I have a lot of catching up to do.

Jonathan and I first found out that we were having a baby in late April, and we were ecstatic. I had an easy first trimester; very little nausea and no headaches. The major change was in my energy level...I couldn't even walk up a flight of stairs without getting out of breath. Since I've always had a lot of energy, this was difficult to get used to. I would go home from school and need to sleep for 2-3 hours before dinner. I wanted to continue exercising, even if it was just walking, but it was too difficult for me to do right after school. Around the 16th week it started getting better and I was able to go out for walks around Central Park. Now, at the 20th week, I've gotten about 90% of my energy back. I still haven't been able to go back to Capoeira yet, which is something I hope to do soon.

Other than that, Jonathan and I have just been relaxing. When I first found out I was pregnant I decided to take the summer off completely, and J & I have been traveling to see family and friends. I got another great book from my friend Patience called Spa Mama, which gives great suggestions on how a pregnant woman can pamper herself during pregnancy without feeling guilty. It's been a very calm summer, and we hope that rubs off on the start of the school year in September!

My belly has started to grow a lot in the past few weeks, and soon I'll post pictures on how it's changed.

Origin of "The Olive"

Here's the scoop on why we call our baby The Olive. My friend Kate sent us a great resource called "The Pregnancy Book." In the first chapter the author outlined how the baby develops during each trimester. When we first got the book we were 7 weeks, and at that time the baby was the size of a SMALL olive. Then in the 8th week we went back to that section, and we discovered our baby was now the size of a LARGE olive. Since we didn't know if it was a boy or a girl, and we didn't have any names picked out, our baby was officially referred to as The Olive!