I told Dan that his daughter was karate-kicking me and he was, of course, pleased. I’m taking this as a sure sign of things to come — MiniSquatch has rebellious tendencies already! Or maybe she’s just mildly claustrophobic like her mother.

In other news, MiniSquatch appears to like jazz. We played music for her last night and she was really grooving to Miles Davis. Aside from dancing and karate skills, MiniSquatch also now has eyelashes and is practicing blinking her eyes. She weighs approximately 2.25lbs and should be about 14.8 inches long. I’m not sure how the internet knows that MiniSquatch is 14.8 inches long, but who am I to question the Baby Center.

In other news, MiniSquatch went on her first plane ride this past weekend — we flew over to Ohio to visit Mom (and Dad and Aunt Karen). Its always nice to visit the Midwest. The trip was uneventful in all things pregnancy-related but there was frequent peeing and strategic planning to accommodate all the peeing. Its no wonder I have to pee so much — Mini Squatch is approximately 14.5 inches long and now weighs close to two pounds (see the new picture to the right to get a produce-visual!). Even though I feel like a walrus, I can’t imagine how she fits in my stomach.

My apologies for the infrequent posts. Hopefully as things progress into the third trimester I’ll have more exciting pregnancy happenings to report. My second trimester has been fairly easy and uneventful. The heart burn continues and now appears to be on a regular schedule — everyday around 5pm. MiniSquatch rolls around and kicks throughout the day and she also appears to be on a somewhat regular schedule of sleeping and being awake. I’m guessing that she’s going to be like Dan and be decidedly NOT a morning person, but we’ll see. Maybe environment can trump genes in that regard.

Its in the forties and raining today in RI, meaning, its feeling a little Spring-y this week. I’m sure we probably have a winter blast or two (or three or more!) in our future for March but still, its exciting to know that Spring and MiniSquatch are right around the corner.

In other news, the baby websites where we learn that our baby is about the size of such and such piece of produce, are starting to prepare me for birth. At the beginning, the weekly updates on baby websites were all about the baby’s development but now I am now being prepared for things like selecting a pediatrician, getting the nursery ready (there are “helpful” suggestions on selecting a decor, etc.), the possibility of early labor, the aches and pains and discomfort that are around the corner, etc. Let’s just say its getting less magical and more frightening with every passing week. I’m trying to make myself just look at the produce comparison and the few notes on fetal development without scrolling down the page to the scary zone!

And I’ve learned also learned recently that nothing is more depressing during pregnancy than a clothing catalog!

She's shy. Or maybe there's a television hiding in that far corner of E's Lady Apartment.

Ok, so what you’re looking at:

• top and center, where there’s a bald head glare of the sort that reminds me of my grandfather but you might better equate with, say, Captain Picard, is in fact her head.
• the wee nub in the center of that is an early draft of an ear.
• to the left of that is her arm and hand, blocking out the paparazzi’s attention.
• there’s a torso below that, in the spot where a torso should be.
• directly below her elbow you can make out a little knee and the other leg’s thigh.

Bear in mind, she’s not done cooking yet. The alien thing will fade away soon and she’ll evolve into pure cute. That’s how it goes.

In other news, I’ve learned that MiniSquatch does not like to be squished — if I hunch over at my desk at work or curl up too much on the couch, I quickly start feeling little kicks or nudges in my lower abdomen. She’s also continuing to respond to all different types of music — anything with a good beat seems to get her moving.

One of the rock steady songs from the Trojan box set

Them

Van Morrison

Blind Pilot

And the observations are as follows: MiniSquatch was not into the rock steady song at all. She was slightly mobile for Them and Van Morrison. She totally rocked out to Blind Pilot (as much as someone or somefetus can rock out to Blind Pilot — see for your self on their website). And, by “rocked out,” I mean she was moving around a lot — even kicking or punching a few times. OF COURSE, I choose to interpret her increase in movement at pleasure but I suppose she could have been trying to get away from the music. Since Blind Pilot is a current obsession of mine, I’m sticking with the former.

I’m here to tell you today that MiniSquatch has reached that point where I can feel her everyday. Whenever I am laying down or sitting still, I can feel her moving around. I can’t tell exactly what she is doing — it still feels mostly like rumbles or butterflies. Apparently Dan can feel her too — he felt her moving the other night while I was sleeping. This DOES NOT bode well for the months to come!

Being able to feel the baby move is totally awesome. And I’m still feeling pretty good most of the time. Starving, though! And still having heart burn…

Meanwhile, we’ve been ogling the excellent Christmas gifts we opened for MiniSquatch (many thanks again!) and are talking to architects about expanding the homestead to make room for everything we’ll have come May. And I’m out cruising other offices’ birthday parties, trying to get this kid moving around some more.

We had our “anatomy ultrasound” yesterday and she is a she. The ultrasound was really cool (we were able to see her heart, brain, spine, skeleton, FACE, among other things) but the pictures are really disappointing. We’ve learned, possibly too late, that it is better to have your ultrasound first thing in the morning when the tech is feeling picture happy. Apparently at the end of the day the tech just wants to get rid of you. We’ll try to put up at least one picture soon but I do have a bonus ultrasound next week (more on that later) and I’m hoping it will give us better photos.